Definitions
Sorry, no definitions found. Check out and contribute to the discussion of this word!
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word pavlov's dog.
Examples
Sorry, no example sentences found.
bilby commented on the word pavlov's dog
The truth of the matter.
November 18, 2008
Prolagus commented on the word pavlov's dog
Ha! Three people laughed in Fourceelia.
November 18, 2008
amacleod03 commented on the word pavlov's dog
A reference to a psychological conditioning, typically used as a simile: like Pavlov's dog; even references to salivation are, at times, implicitly Pavlovian.
It was Russian psychologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936) who discovered a response in animals that is referred to as “conditioned reflex.�? It seems that research scientists can be trained to ring bells at the sight of dogs preparing to salivate.
July 27, 2009