The Pavlovian Society, also known as the Pavlovian Society of North America, is a learned society dedicated to advancing

Pavlovian Classical conditioning (also known as Pavlovian or respondent conditioning) is a behavioral procedure in which a biologically potent stimulus (e.g. food) is paired with a previously neutral stimulus (e.g. a triangle). It also refers to the learn ...

psychological Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between t ...

research, and to promoting the exchange of ideas between

scientific discipline The branches of science, also referred to as sciences, scientific fields or scientific disciplines, are commonly divided into three major groups: *Formal sciences: the study of formal systems, such as those under the branches of logic and mat ...

History

The Pavlovian Society was established in 1955 by

W. Horsley Gantt William Andrew Horsley Gantt (24 October 1892 – 26 February 1980) was an American physiologist and psychiatrist. At the time of his death in 1980, he was one of only two surviving students of Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov. He spent fifty-six ...

, at a ceremony held to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the founding of his Pavlovian Laboratory at

Johns Hopkins School of Medicine The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) is the medical school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1893, the School of Medicine shares a campus with the Johns Hopkins Hospi ...

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. On May 7, 1955, at the conclusion of the 25th anniversary ceremony, the Society's first meeting was held. The meeting was attended by Gantt, Howard Liddell, Edward Kempf,

David Rioch David McKenzie Rioch (July 6, 1900 – September 11, 1985) was a psychiatric research scientist and neuroanatomist, known as a pioneer in brain research and for leading the interdisciplinary neuropsychiatry division at the Walter Reed Army Institute ...

, and William G. Reese. The agreement reached at that meeting was for the society's membership to be initially limited to thirty-five people. Early in its history, the Pavlovian Society held its annual meetings in or near Baltimore and/or

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, but this began to change as the society began to attract more members from other countries. John J. Furedy, a former president of the society, claimed that it was unique among psychological learned societies in being truly open to "genuine debate and discussion", which he argued was representative of a

pre-Socratic Pre-Socratic philosophy, also known as early Greek philosophy, is ancient Greek philosophy before Socrates. Pre-Socratic philosophers were mostly interested in cosmology, the beginning and the substance of the universe, but the inquiries of thes ...

philosophy.

Presidents

Gantt was the founding president of the Pavlovian Society, serving from 1955 to 1965. Other people who have served as president of the society since then include Stephen Maren, Michael Fanselow,

Richard F. Thompson Richard Frederick Thompson (September 6, 1930 – September 16, 2014) was an American behavioral neuroscientist. He was the William M. Keck Professor of Psychology and Biological Sciences at the University of Southern California, with a parallel ...

, and

B. F. Skinner Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher. He was a professor of psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974. ...

. The current president is Natalie Tronson in the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan.

References

External links

* 1955 establishments in Maryland Organizations established in 1955 Psychology organizations based in the United States Professional associations based in the United States {{Science-org-stub