Pavlov developed classical conditioning after studying secretion in dogs
Aim
- To study how the cerebral cortex works in making associations
- To look for a mechanism linking reflexes to cerebral cortex
Procedure
- Pavlov studied the reflex of salivating, to see if a dog could be conditioned to salivate to a completely unrelated stimulus
- He paired the neutral stimulus (metronome, bell, buzzer) with food (UCS) to condition this new stimulus to produce the same response
- He isolated the dog in a small room so that he couldn’t even hear footsteps outside
- Just before placing food in the dog’s mouth, Pavlov sounding the metronome
- After several pairings, the dog began to salivate to the metronome alone, in anticipant of food
- Once the dogs have been conditioned by the new stimulus to give a response, we call this the conditioned response
Before Conditioning
Metronome (NS) = No response
Food (UCS) = Salivation (UCR)
During Conditioning
Metronome (NS) + Food (UCS) = Salivation (UCR)
After Conditioning
Metronome (CS) = Salivation (CR)
Results
- In the metronome study, salivation started after 9 seconds and by 45 seconds, 11 drops had been collected
- The dog would only salivate when the NS/CS was presented before the UCS
- To test the reliability, he retested with the presentation of a visual test involving a rotating disc being seen prior to the food being given
- He paired a shape or colour (CS2) with the sound of a metronome (CS1) and found that higher order conditioning was possible
- The more similarity there between the new neutral stimulus and the conditioned stimulus, the greater the amount of drooling from the dog
Conclusion
- ‘signalisation’ in the brain links the metronome to the food
- Gives the reflex response of salivation
- Sensitive to many extraneous variables and individual differences
- In one experiment, the same experiment was done to two dogs but produced opposite effects
Evaluation Summary
- G – low – animal ppt – different cognitive abilities to humans
- R – high – variations – similar responses with different neutral stimuli
- R – high – standardised procedure – easy to replicate
- A – yes – how conditioning can be used to manipulate behaviour – treat phobias
- V – high – isolated dog to minimise EV – cause and effect can be established
- V – low ecological – lab experiment – unnatural behaviour
- E – high – humans were not used – no harm to humans