Pavlov was an early psychological researcher, he used dogs to assess whether he could programme them to associate food with a sound rather than the visual presence or smell. He basically rang a bell and put the food down in front of the dogs and after a period of time removed the food but kept the bell, and watch to see if they still salivated.
I was reminded of this experiment at work the other day, I work at a centre well known for is cake. Now for the staff we all wait in the staff room for the cake trolly to appear. Now before was see or smell the cake there is a distinctive rattle of the cups as it is pushed along the corridor, and like Pavlov’s dog we don’t so much start salivating, at least not to the extent of drooling, but there is a certain amount of jockeying for position and speculation as to what the cake will be.
It made me realise that we have all been programme to the sound of the trolley rather than the sight. In a way the centre uses it to get the staff back to the centre for 5pm.
Anyway I am not working for a while so maybe I will de-programme myself.
It also appears that i definitely lost my phone, which is a right pain in the arse. As whilst I could eventually switch my number back, I unfortunately have lost all my contact details. If you know me and have my email address please send me your phone number, as I am very lonely at the moment, and how else am I going to hassle everyone who climbs to come and do my study up at the wall!