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Ivan Pavlov with his wife |
During the Tsarist era, Pavlov’s pursuit of truth was far from easy; he had to fiercely combat pseudoscience and conservative forces.
One day, two children came to see Pavlov; they wanted to ask him a question. They had previously visited his laboratory with their teacher and had been fascinated by Pavlov’s beautiful, talented dogs. “But, Professor, do your dogs know how to do math?” one child named Arusa asked.
Pavlov appeared very interested and asked: “Is that so? What happened? Tell me!”
It turned out that the day before, after school, Arusa had seen an intriguing advertisement on the street, which read: “This is a dog with mathematical talent!” Below it was a small line that said, “Mrs. Crinna has a very intelligent dog that can do math like a human, welcome to come and see!”
Arusa was so captivated by the advertisement that he invited his friend to go see the dog perform. The children, along with many others, eagerly followed the address on the flyer, and upon arrival, they found a large crowd waiting. Soon after, the performance began.
Mrs. Crinna brought out a dog dressed in a costume, adorned with shiny reflective pieces around its neck, resembling a beautiful necklace.
Arusa and Cacha sat right in the front row, intently watching the dog perform, curious to understand how the dog could do math.
The audience watched as Mrs. Crinna held up several white cards to write down math problems. She placed one card in front of the dog, which read “2 + 3 = ?”, and the dog barked five times. Then, she changed to another card that said: “7 – 4 = ?”, and the dog barked three times. It was truly remarkable!
The crowd erupted in applause, while Arusa and Cacha sat in silence, puzzled as to how the dog could do math. Noticing nothing amiss and unable to answer their own questions, they sought out Pavlov to ask him.
After listening to their story, Pavlov thought for a moment and said: “This is a trick; how could there be such an intelligent dog?” He asked for details about the performance and analyzed it. He explained to the two children: The reason this happened was that Mrs. Crinna had attached many reflective pieces to the dog’s collar. Although she showed the dog the side of the card with the writing, the other side was facing her, but the dog could see what was written through the reflective pieces. She placed her left hand on the dog’s back to signal it, and the dog would bark “arf, arf…”. When the number of barks matched the answer to the math problem, her signal ended, and the dog stopped barking.
After hearing Pavlov’s explanation, the two children understood and were even more convinced of their admiration for Professor Pavlov.
Mrs. Crinna’s performance deceived many people, all of whom lacked scientific understanding. Such incidents are not unique to Russia; they occur in other countries as well. A magazine published a story about a strange horse in Germany, which could not only speak but also converse in English, French, and more. Many people went to see it, including several officials and psychologists, who praised the horse. Some even shared this story with Pavlov and brought the magazine for him to see. Pavlov merely laughed and said: “This is impossible; it’s just a trick. A horse can never talk; it’s simply a horse.”
As a great scientist, Pavlov firmly fought against all forms of pseudoscience, believing that such deceptive practices could never last.
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Return: “Ivan Petrovich Pavlov – The Diligent Boy”
Return: “Pavlov – Conditional Reflex“
