4.1.2 Pavlov (1927) salivation in dogs

Question 1

Aims?

Answer 1

To investigate whether you could condition a dog to salivate at the noise of a bell
To investigate whether changing the noise of a bell to a metronome has the same effect

Question 2

Method?

Answer 2

Lab

Question 3

Procedure?

Answer 3

Kept the dog in an isolated room strapped to a harness

He used a bell as the neutral stimulus and the food as the unconditioned stimulus, with salivation as the unconditioned response

He paired the sound of the bell with the dog’s food by ringing the bell before sliding the food through a gap

Saliva was collected through a tube connected to the dog’s mouth

Question 4

Results?

Answer 4

After several pairings of the bell with the food, the dog began to salivate at the sound of the bell in anticipation to the food and so the bell became the conditioned stimulus and the salivation the conditioned response.

Question 5

Conclusion?

Answer 5

He established the existence of associative learning and stated that we can learn desired behavioural responses when present with a certain stimulus through classical conditioning.

Question 6

Define ‘higher order conditioning’.

Answer 6

When a new neutral stimulus is paired with a conditioned stimulus to produce the same conditioned response as what the conditioned stimulus elicits.

Question 7

Describe the scientific formula for higher order conditioning with the example of a bell and light using the 3 stages of classical conditioning

Answer 7

1) Before
Light (NS) –> No response
Bell (CS1) –> Salivation (CS1)
2) During
Light (NS) + Bell (CS1) –> Salivation (CR1)
3) After
Light (CS2) –> Salivation (CR2)

Question 8

GRAVE-Generalisability

Answer 8

P - Low
E - Pavlov used a dog as his sample, singular ppts and animal research
E - Can’t generalise to humans due to them being more complex with qualitative differences, can change the findings and make research less generalisable back to humans in terms of classical conditioning results

Question 9

GRAVE-Reliability

Answer 9

P- - High
E - Pavlov repeated the experiment using other stimuli such as a light, buzzer and metronome
E - Found the same results each time, high test-retest R
P - High
E - Followed a standardised procedure (sounding the bell before the food was presented)
E - Easily replicable

Question 10

GRAVE-Validity

Answer 10

P - Low ecological
E - Dog was placed in an unnatural environment (such as being strapped to a harness)
E - May not represent behaviour in real life
P - High
E - Carried out in a lab environment with strict control over EVs as dog was placed in isolated room
E - Can establish cause and effect for the dogs behaviours, provides evidence of CC due to UCR/salivation, incr V of findings

Question 11

GRAVE-Ethics

Answer 11

P - Unethical
E - Dog was kept in an isolated room and they are social animals
E - May have experienced distress and broken the isolation and crowding guideline