4.1.2 - Pavlov (1927) experiment with salivation in dogs Flashcards
what did Pavlov discover while investigating digestive processes in dogs?
when dogs encountered the stimulus o food, they began to salivate
eventually the dogs started to salivate without the proper stimulus of food
what did Pavlov hypothesise?
the dogs were reacting to his assistants’ lab coats, as when given the food the assistant would be wearing a lab coat
how did Pavlov establish how presentation with food and salivation were linked?
- created a soundproof lab to see if presentation with a precise stimuli would evoke a response even with no direct contact between dog and experimenter
- the unconditioned stimulus was food and the unconditioned response salivation
- Pavlov introduced a neutral stimulus (metronome) - the dog was presented over several learning trials with the ticking of the metronome before the food appeared
- the dogs learned to associate the sound of the metronome with food, and eventually responded to just the sound of the metronome by salivating
what did Pavlov conclude?
an environmental stimuli which initially led to no reflex action could eventually trigger a conditioned response after repeated pairing, through the process of associative learning
how did Pavlov establish the reliability of his findings?
he investigated whether the same systems of learning would work with other neutral stimuli eg. presentation of vanilla odour or seeing rotating disc before food
how did Pavlov demonstrate higher order conditioning?
he paired the further neutral stimulus with the original conditioned stimulus eg. shape (CS2) with metronome (CS1) - when the dogs were presented with the shape and heard the metronome, they began to salivate
what did Pavlov discover about stimulus generalisation?
the dogs showed stimulus generalisation sounds of a similar tone, but discriminated between those with different tones
the greater the similarity between a new neutral stimulus and the conditioned stimulus, the greater the conditioned response
what are the main strengths of the study?
used standardised procedure so could be replicated
measured droplets of saliva from dog’s mouths using test tube allowing quantitative data to be obtained - makes it objective
dogs were placed in soundproof chamber to isolate them from other stimuli - improves validity by ensuring only metronome resulted in salivation, not other stimuli
what are the main weaknesses of the study?
low generalisability because used dogs, and human and animals behave in different ways
ethical issues as dogs were caged, isolated and kept in a harness - however can be justified as procedures were needed to remove extraneous variables and ensure validity
