What did Pavlov’s dog think about Pavlov?

August 21, 2003 2:34 PM

What did Pavlov’s dog think about Pavlov?
"Look at the poor man, every time I am hungry, instead of bringing me food, he rings the bell!"
Some people just figure it out, but here on MeFi we already knew it.
posted by MzB (9 comments total)

Every time I have leftover pizza for lunch, I crave orange juice.


Is that what you're talking about?
posted by me3dia at 2:43 PM on August 21, 2003

Odd - I suddenly have this strange craving to make some pointless, smartass criticism.
posted by crunchburger at 2:57 PM on August 21, 2003

posted by quonsar at 3:03 PM on August 21, 2003

I won't be impressed until they find a way to make me yearn for a healthy vegan meal.
posted by mosch at 3:06 PM on August 21, 2003

Just so I'm not the only one with this song stuck in my head:
It's a matter of instincts, a matter of conditioning, a matter of fact
You can call me Pavlov's dog
Ring a bell and I'll salivate, how'd you like that?
Dr. Landing tell me you're not just a pedagogue

And haven't icecream trucks been doing this for years? I know whenever I hear the first couple notes to "Do Your Ears Hang Low" I start craving a sno-cone.
posted by krazykity16 at 4:04 PM on August 21, 2003

My mind's appetite "brake system" works well, but only on the front passenger's side wheel... and it only has two positions: on and off.

Thanks for the cool article, MzB.
posted by squirrel at 5:19 PM on August 21, 2003

This seems obvious to me. Haven't you ever smelled something or heard a certain noise that brought you instantly back to an old state of mind you hadn't felt in years?

For a couple months a few years back, I used to read about a certain subject while I ate dinner. Now every time I go back to it, I get hungry.
posted by tirade at 5:23 PM on August 21, 2003

Kluver-Bucy syndrome, if you're interested.

OK, so conditioned responses are a powerful way of affecting human behavior. Witness army discipline, religious ceremonies, toilet training, etc etc. The more I look at this the more I think a lack of a conditioned response element in a behavioral phenomenon is the exception.

So why not use it on ourselves? Try this: think about a time when you felt powerful, happy, in control, eloquent and attractive. Things were going well for you, people were listening to you, being nice to you, hitting on you, etc. Yeah, you might have been drunk at the time. Doesn't matter. The point is that's how you felt. Make sure you think about this from your own point of view, ie first person perspective. While you do this, grasp your left wrist with your right hand and your right wrist with your left hand. Now let go of the thought and your wrists. Then do it again. Do this about ten times in a row.

Next time you spontaneously feel like that, grab your wrists for a moment. Keep this up.

Do it enough and, according to the theory of conditioned responses, you should have grown yourself a useful one. Grab your wrists for a second before social interaction, see if it makes any difference to how you behave.

(This idea adapted from Ross Jeffries' Psychic Control, which is all about using hypnotic and conditioning techniques to pick up women. I admit to having ethical problems with some of his ideas, but others--like the one above--are damn useful. It's available from the usual sources of small copyrighted things.)
posted by aeschenkarnos at 6:09 PM on August 21, 2003

How can you train somebody to do anything while they're stuck in an MRI tube?

Oddly, though, I now want peanut butter and ice cream.
posted by etoile at 12:32 PM on August 22, 2003