Pavlov, Ivan

Pavlov, Ivan (Petrovich)

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov.

(credit: Mansell Collection)

(born Sept. 26, 1849, Ryazan, Russia—died Feb. 27, 1936, Leningrad) Russian physiologist. He is known chiefly for the concept of the conditioned reflex. In his classic experiment, he found that a hungry dog trained to associate the sound of a bell with food salivated at the sound even in the absence of food. He expanded on Charles Sherrington's explanation of the spinal reflex. He also tried to apply his laws to human psychoses and language function. His ability to reduce a complex situation to a simple experiment and his pioneering studies relating human behaviour to the nervous system laid the basis for the scientific analysis of behaviour. After the Russian Revolution, he became an outspoken opponent of the communist government. He won a 1904 Nobel Prize for his work on digestive secretions.