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What did Ivan Pavlov believe about using measurable physiological evidence to study mental phenomena?

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Ivan Pavlov believed that it was impossible to study mental phenomena scientifically unless they were reduced to measurable physiological quantities.1

He argued that subjective or "psychical" activity could be effectively analyzed by using objective, physiological measures. To this end, Pavlov utilized salivary secretion as a quantitative metric to study the higher nervous activity of animals. By observing these secretions in normal, unanesthetized subjects, he was able to formulate the laws of the conditioned reflex, which allowed him to translate complex behavioral situations into simple, experimental terms.21

While Pavlov recognized the existence of the subjective component of behavior, he maintained that scientific rigor required focusing exclusively on observable, physiological evidence to explain higher mental processes and human behaviour.1