Psychology discuss one contribution of the learning perspective to the scientific study of behaviour

Classical conditioning is a form of learning that was first demonstrated by Ivan Pavlov. The typical procedure for inducing classical conditioning involves presentations of a neutral stimulus along with a stimulus of some significance. The neutral stimulus could be any event that does not result in an overt behavioral response from the organism under investigation. Pavlov referred to this as a conditioned stimulus (CS). Conversely, presentation of the significant stimulus necessarily evokes an innate, often reflexive, response. Pavlov called these the unconditioned stimulus (US) and unconditioned response (UR), respectively. If the CS and the US are repeatedly paired, eventually the two stimuli become associated and the organism begins to produce a behavioral response to the CS. Pavlov called this the conditioned response (CR). To prove this theory he used salivation (UCR) in dogs at the sight of food (US). He saw that dogs started salivating at the sight of their food and so started to ring a bell (NS) just before and during the time the dogs were fed. After a while the bell transformed from an NS to a CS as the dogs started salivating at the ringing of the bell as they had effectively been conditioned to connect the bell with food.

In conclusion, classical conditioning as explained by Pavlov’s laboratory experiment with dogs helps explain how the learning perspective used scientific experiments for the first time in psychology in the way that they tried to prove theories in a controlled environment. This contributed to the scientific study of behavior as it led to other perspectives adopting similar methods and so making their theories more valid.