THE ROLE OF PHYSIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY in PHONETICS
The origins of phonetics are also traceable in physiology and psychology. Perhaps the most famous physiologist whose ideas were widely incorporated into the developments of phonetics was Ivan Pavlov. He is noted for his pioneer work in the physiology of the heart, nervous system, and digestive system. His most famous experiments, begun in 1889, demonstrated the conditioned and unconditioned reflexes in dogs, and they had an influence on the development of physiologically oriented behaviorist theories of psychology during the early years of the 20th century. His work on the physiology of the digestive glands won him the 1904 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.
Pavlov carried out a series of experiments in which he provided what he called stimuli for his dog and measured what he called responses. In these experiments, Pavlov accompanied the call of a bell with dog-food and measured the secretion of saliva by the dog. He repeated this stimulus several times. When he predicted that the dog could associate the ring of the bell with the presence of food, Pavlov omitted the food but kept the bell. To his surprise, Pavlov observed that the dog's secretion of saliva in the absence of food increased as if food was present. That is, the dog had learnt to react to the call of the bell. Pavlov concluded that organisms could learn new behavior upon the repetition of appropriate stimuli to the point of automaticity. Pavlov's experiments led to the notion of Behaviorism in psychology which is, in turn, at the heart of structuralism in linguistics.
Behaviorism is a movement in psychology that advocates the use of strict experimental procedures to study observable behavior (or responses) in relation to the environment (or stimuli). The behavioristic view of psychology has its roots in the writings of the British associationist philosophers, as well as in the American functionalist school of psychology and the Darwinian theory of evolution, both of which emphasize the way that individuals adapt and adjust to the environment.
Behaviorism was first developed in the early 20th century by the American psychologist John B. Watson. The dominant view of that time was that psychology is the study of inner experiences or feelings by subjective, introspective methods. Following Kantian philosophy, Watson did not deny the existence of inner experiences, but he insisted that these experiences could not be studied because they were not observable. He was greatly influenced by the pioneering investigations of the Russian physiologists Ivan Pavlov and Vladimir Bekhterev on conditioning of animals (i.e., classical conditioning). Watson proposed to make the study of psychology scientific by using only objective procedures such as laboratory experiments designed to establish statistically significant results. The behavioristic view led him to formulate a stimulus-response (S-R) theory of psychology. In this theory all complex forms of behavior—emotions, habits, and such—are seen as composed of simple muscular and glandular elements that can be observed and measured. He claimed that emotional reactions are learned in much the same way as other skills.
Watson's stimulus-response theory resulted in a tremendous increase in research activity on learning in animals and in humans, from infancy to early adulthood. Between 1920 and midcentury, behaviorism dominated psychology in the United States and also had wide international influence. By the 1950s, the new behavioral movement had produced a mass of data on learning that led such American experimental psychologists as Edward C. Tolman, Clark L. Hull, and B. F. Skinner to formulate their own theories of learning and behavior based on laboratory experiments instead of introspective observations.
