Overview

Understanding the behavior of animals is essential to the work of scientists today. Animal models are used in many areas to study anatomy as well as behavior. Knowing the workings of animal brains led to the founding of psychology and neurology as distinct disciplines. Several scientists devoted their efforts to the study of brain behavior in animals. Russian physiologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1839-1936) is known for his development of the concept of conditioned reflex. German-born American biologist Jacques Loeb (1859-1924) studied animal responses that he coined "tropisms." And American psychologist B. F. Skinner (1904-1990) experimented with scientific measurement of animal behavior that led to the development of a major branch called behaviorism. Behaviorism is not only a philosophy of the past but of the future. For example, computer-assisted instruction is based on the work of...