Pavlov, Ivan (1849-1936)
The Russian physiologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov is best known as the discoverer of the conditioned reflex. The life and work of this Nobel laureate is encapsulated in his motto, "Observation and observation!" His work had an enormous influence on psychology in general and on the theory of learning and memory in particular.
Early Life and Work
Pavlov evolved from a religious to a scientific framework. His ancestry tracex to an illiterate eighteenth-century serf known only by his first name, Pavel (Anokhin, 1949). Pavel's son gained emancipation and became a member of the clerical estate. During the next two generations, the family head rose through the religious hierarchy from church sexton to deacon. The deacon was able to provide a seminary education for his sons, who became ordained priests. Pavlov's father, Petr Dmitrievich, the youngest of these sons, was a priest in Riazan, an ancient town about 120 miles south of Moscow.
Petr Pavlov, as Windholz notes (1991), had a library of his own and transmitted to his son a love of knowledge. His advice to his children was that any book should be read at least twice in order not to miss anything important and to recall it more accurately; Ivan took this advice to heart throughout his scientific career.
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