Topic: Ivan Pavlov

The origins of modern educational psychology are traced back to Wilhelm Wundt and Ivan Pavlov's experiments with stimulus-response conditioning. These principles were imported to American universities by the "Troika" of Skull and Bones: Daniel Coit Gilman, Andrew Dickson White, and Timothy Dwight. This psychological framework treats the human psyche as a machine to be reshaped through environmental stimuli.

Behaviorist psychology, pioneered by Ivan Pavlov and John Watson, is identified as the foundation for school bells and classroom transitions. Watson's experiments on "Baby Albert" at Johns Hopkins University demonstrated how fear could be conditioned into humans, techniques later utilized by the Tavistock Institute and Madison Avenue advertisers. The discussion concludes with B.F. Skinner's role in redefining human life as a series of reactive, plant-like responses to stimuli.