How do we know that Pavlov didn't operantly condition himself to want to feed his dogs every time he rang the bell?

Answer 1

IP was rewarding himself by obtaining positive/negative results, and there was no negative reinforcement, hence no need to escape or to end the experiment.

So we can "know" (assume) that IP was super-operantly conditioned, but b/c he was not so much in a box (controlled) as the animals, he was "motivated," not "conditioned," a kind of Maslowian self-actualization:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_o...

Answer 2

Excellent point.

Source(s): Perhaps the dogs were just humoring him.