Pavlov, Ivan Petrovich - Orvis C. Irwin (essay date 1939)
Orvis C. Irwin (essay date 1939)
SOURCE: "Toward A Theory of Conditioning," in the Psychological Review, Vol. 46, No. 5, September, 1939, pp. 425-44.
[In the following essay, Irwin outlines Pavlov's general theory of conditioning, provides a critique, and presents an alternative interpretation of the subject.]
The manner in which the title of this paper is worded—toward a theory—implies a conviction that aside from Pavlov there exists no fully-developed systematic theory of conditioning. There are, however, some experimental data which may be used for the beginnings of a new formulation. A great deal of incidental questioning, if not outright criticism, is current in the literature on the subject, although it has not resulted in a concerted attempt to restate the conventional viewpoint. This situation is probably due to the enormous prestige of Pavlov's name. One should not be unmindful, of course, of the possibility that...
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