pavlov

Question 1

when was Pavlov’s study?

Answer 1

1927

Question 2

what was Pavlov initially investigating?

Answer 2

using dogs in a lab to investigate the digestive process and functions within the cerebral cortex of the brain where he thought inbuilt reflex would occur.

Question 3

what were the dogs fitted with during his experiment?

Answer 3

• a tube that would collect and enable measurement of their saliva.

Question 4

what made he begin his study into classical conditioning?

Answer 4

• the OG experiment required the dogs to be fed, and it was this that led Pavlov to identity that the dogs would salivate even before the food was presented.

Question 5

how did Pavlov ensure there were controls put in place?

Answer 5

it took place in a soundproof laboratory and Pavlov limited the amount of direct contact the dogs had with the experimenter.

Question 6

what neutral stimulus was presented?

Answer 6

• the metronome which ticks at a steady rate and is presented to the dogs before they are given food.

Question 7

what did Pavlov find after a few pairings of the neutral stimulus and the food ?

Answer 7

that the dogs began to associate the sound of the metronome with the presentation of the food and began to salivate without the food even being there
- the sound of the metronome was enough to make this happen.

Question 8

what did Pavlov conclude after this response occured?

Answer 8

• that environmental stimuli (metronome) that had no relationship previously with to a a reflex (saliva) could trigger a salivation reflex after repeated pairings.
• through the process of associative learning (conditioning) the conditioned stimulus (ticking) could produce a conditioned response (salivation).

Question 9

what did Pavlov find to be the number of pairings required for association to be made?

Answer 9

20 times

Question 10

how did Pavlov explain the difference between the natural reflex to the food compared with the conditioned reflex to the metronome ?

Answer 10

• when a dog has meat in its mouth there is an existing inborn link to the salivation that exists in the cortex of the dog’s brain.
• however the reflex that occurs to the metronome occurs due to new higher- order paths in the cortex
• therefore the salivation the metronome is conditioned and the salivation to the food is unconditioned.

Question 11

what further tests t Pavlov carry out in order to ensure the reliability of his findings?

Answer 11

• he carried out further tests of association using different neutral stimulus e.g. the smell of vanilla / a certain shape of colour
• he found that the dogs showed stimulus generalisation to sounds of a similar tone
• but were able to discriminate between sounds that were quite different also.

Question 12

what did Pavlov believe about how the neutral stimulus should be presented in order to gain an accurate response?

Answer 12

• ## the neutral stimulus should be present before the unconditioned stimulus in order for association to be made. this is known as forward conditioning.

Question 13

how did Pavlov demonstrate that forward conditioning was more effective?

Answer 13

• he sounder an electric buzzer 5-10 seconds after the food was presnted and this did not achieve salivation.

Question 14

what did Pavlov conclude about this study?

Answer 14

• that external stimuli presented could disrupt the conditioning process and that the same conditioning on different dogs did not necessarily produce the same response - therefore conditioning can be impacted by individual differences.

Question 15

does Pavlov’s study achieve objectivity and scientific credibility?

Answer 15

yes, as Pavlov isolated the dogs and put them in a sound proof room and therefore controlled the potential effects of any extraneous variables on the conditoning process.

Question 16

reliability?

Answer 16

many of the experiments were repeated on multiple occasions were Pavlov continually found that conditioned stimuli would produce a conditioned response. suggesting the study to have reliability.

Question 17

why are their issues with generalisability?

Answer 17

• pavlov already commented that not all dogs produced the same response suggesting their to be individual differences involved
• not only that but the study was carried out on animals which are much less complex beings that humans which suggests their may be problems with generalising the findings to everyone.

Question 18

why might there be issues with ethics?

Answer 18

• the study is an example of social control
• the research and findings from this study can be used to control a person or animals behaviour and therefore might be a quite unsettling idea on society.