Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (Russian: Иван Петрович Павлов, IPA: [ɪˈvan pʲɪˈtrovʲɪtɕ ˈpavləf] ⓘ; 26 September [O.S.

14 September] 1849 – 27 February 1936)[2] was a Russian and Soviet experimental neurologist and physiologist known for his discovery of classical conditioning through his experiments with dogs.

He loved to garden, ride his bicycle, row, swim, and play gorodki; he devoted his summer vacations to these activities.

[6] Although able to read by the age of seven, Pavlov did not begin formal schooling until he was 11 years old, due to serious injuries he had sustained when falling from a high wall onto a stone pavement.

Impelled by his interest in physiology, Pavlov decided to continue his studies and proceeded to the Imperial Academy of Medical Surgery.

After some time, Pavlov obtained a position as a laboratory assistant to Konstantin Ustimovich at the physiological department of the Veterinary Institute.

[4] In 1878, Professor Sergey Botkin, a clinician, invited Pavlov to work in the physiological laboratory as the clinic's chief.

[12] The fellowship and his position as director of the Physiological Laboratory at Botkin's clinic enabled Pavlov to continue his research work.

Additionally, his collaboration with the Botkin Clinic produced evidence of a basic pattern in the regulation of reflexes in the activity of circulatory organs.

[citation needed] He was inspired to pursue a scientific career by Dmitry Pisarev, a literary critic and natural science advocate and Ivan Sechenov, a physiologist, whom Pavlov described as "the father of physiology".

[5] After completing his doctorate, Pavlov went to Germany, where he studied in Leipzig with Carl Ludwig and Eimear Kelly in the Heidenhain laboratories in Breslau.

[15] When Pavlov received the Nobel Prize it was specified that he did so "in recognition of his work on the physiology of digestion, through which knowledge on vital aspects of the subject has been transformed and enlarged".

[16] At the Institute of Experimental Medicine, Pavlov carried out his classical experiments on the digestive glands, which would eventually grant him the aforementioned Nobel prize.

[17] Pavlov investigated the gastric function of dogs, and later, homeless children,[18][dubious – discuss] by externalizing a salivary gland so he could collect, measure, and analyze the saliva and what response it had to food under different conditions.

He noticed that the dogs tended to salivate before food was actually delivered to their mouths, and set out to investigate this "psychic secretion", as he called it.

[19][20][21] A 1921 article by Sergius Morgulis in the journal Science was critical of Pavlov's work, raising concerns about the environment in which these experiments had been performed.

[24] In 1935, a few months before his death, Pavlov read a draft of the 1936 "Stalin Constitution" and expressed his pleasure at the apparent dawn of a more free and democratic Soviet Union.

[citation needed] Pavlov and his researchers observed and began the study of transmarginal inhibition (TMI), the body's natural response of shutting down when exposed to overwhelming stress or pain by electric shock.

[32] Pavlov's principles of classical conditioning have been found to operate across a variety of behavior therapies and in experimental and clinical settings, such as educational classrooms and even reducing phobias with systematic desensitization.

[36] The basic underlying principles of Pavlov's classical conditioning have extended to a variety of settings, such as classrooms and learning environments.

Pavlov systematically presented and withdrew stimuli to determine the antecedents that were eliciting responses, which is similar to the ways in which educational professionals conduct functional behavior assessments.

[45] Later the same year Pavlov more fully explained the findings, at the 14th International Medical Congress in Madrid, where he read a paper titled The Experimental Psychology and Psychopathology of Animals.

Pavlovian conditioning is a major theme in Aldous Huxley's dystopian novel, Brave New World (1932), and in Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow (1973).

[49] Littman tentatively attributed the popular imagery to Pavlov's contemporaries Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev and John B. Watson.

Roger K. Thomas, of the University of Georgia, however, said they had found "three additional references to Pavlov's use of a bell that strongly challenge Littman's argument".

[citation needed] The first nine years of their marriage were marred by financial problems; Pavlov and his wife often had to stay with others to have a home and, for a time, the two lived apart so that they could find hospitality.

Kreps writes that Pavlov smiled and replied: "Listen, good fellow, in regard to [claims of] my religiosity, my belief in God, my church attendance, there is no truth in it; it is sheer fantasy.