In the end pavlov studies show when the most mentally robust subjects breakdown
enjoy a conversion experience
&enthusiastically adopt political view to which they were formerly violently opposed.
How it worked in Pavlov's lab.
In his experiments with the responses of dogs to stress, Pavlov found that they would break down through three different stages
The three stages
Before the three stages, dogs would react differently to different stimuli. Thus with food, they would be more anxious to get tasty or large quantities of food than small and bland food.
Equivalent stage
In the first breakdown stage, the dogs would react in the same way to stimuli of different strength. It is as if they were so mentally and physically exhausted, they did not have the inclination or were no longer able to distinguish between the levels of stressors.
Paradoxical stage
In the next stage, the dogs ceased to respond to strong stimuli, whilst they still responded to weak stimuli. It is as if their brains had acted to protectively shut down against stressors that could not be handled. Thus there would be no response to a strong electric shock, whilst a response was still seen for mild shocks.
Ultra-paradoxical stage
In this stage, behaviors started to reverse, for example dogs behaving in a friendly way towards keepers who they had previously disliked, and vice versa. It is as if, in desperation, they are creatively trying things that they had not previously tried, in order to seek ways to escape the stress.
And one more
A further stage that Pavlov discovered was when the laboratory flooded and the dogs were rescued just before they drowned. In their terror, they forgot everything they had learned up until that point and it took months to restore the conditioning.
http://changingminds.org/explanations/behaviors/conditioning/three_stages_breakdown.htm