Whenever I sit upright, say, when reading, I can usually stay alert. But when I slouch on a bed or couch, I start yawning when I read or do something similar.
Of course, it makes sense, but is there something scientific behind it, at least in general?
In fact, there is. I learned it in Psychology last fall. In the 1890s, Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, discovered the concept of classical conditioning. He used a dog as his subject. Dog naturally salivate at food, for it is internally wired into their brain. They don’t need extrinsic commands. Then, Pavlov rang a bell to draw the dog to the food. After then, the food was no longer necessary.
So, how do we explain this? The bell, when combined with the food, takes precedence. Thus, what was once irrelevant to the dog (the bell) has been incorporated into the dog’s repertoire of behavioral stimuli. This incorporation is known as classical conditioning.
Now for my situation. Keep in mind I’m no doctor or psychologist (and probably not planning to be either one), so I’m not trying to develop a direct theory of why slouching on a couch causes yawning or drowsiness when reading. Just the correlations are enough. Yet again, correlation does not mean causality. But hey, at least it’s something quite practical from the course, that can be easily applied to us humans. I guess I could do without the causality. At least for now.
Source: McLeod, S. A. (2013). Pavlov’s Dogs. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/pavlov.html
The Adventures of a Christian Bookworm 