... understanding of all behaviour. Secondly, that learning arose from the association between an external stimulus and a behavioural response. Thirdly that only measurable information counted as valid scientific data and fourthly, that any apparent mental processes or inferences about what was going on in an organism should be rejected, since the only thing which could be observed directly was that organisms behaviour. The fifth assumption was that all behaviour, whether animal or human was learned in the same way. Watson's theory was partly taken from and elaborated from the earlier works of Pavlov, Thorndike and Skinner. Early behaviourists were greatly influenced by the works of Ivan Pavlov (1848-1936), and his theory of classical conditioning on dogs. Pavlov led an experiment on dogs to find out whether or not dogs would react to a neutral stimulus such a tone. Pavlov found that they trained to salivate; he trained a dog and ...

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