Classical Conditioning

Question 1

what are the main features of classical conditioning?

Answer 1

unconditioned stimulus
unconditioned response
conditioned stimulus
neutral stimulus
conditioned response
extinction
spontaneous recovery

Question 2

unconditioned stimulus (UCS)

Answer 2

the stimulus which automatically triggers a specific response

Question 3

unconditional response (UCR)

Answer 3

a response that is naturally occurring without any prior learning

Question 4

conditioned stimulus (CS)

Answer 4

the NS now triggers the reflex response

Question 5

neutral stimulus (NS)

Answer 5

a stimulus which would not normally trigger a specific reflex response

Question 6

conditioned response

Answer 6

this is a learned response

Question 7

extinction

Answer 7

the gradual weakening of a conditioned response that results in the behavior decreasing or disappearing

the loss of a conditioned response to the conditioned stimulus

Question 8

spontaneous recovery

Answer 8

the sudden reappearance of a previously extinguished response

Question 9

generalisation

Answer 9

the application of the results from a study, to the wider target population.

Question 10

what type of conditioning did Pavlov develop?

Answer 10

Classical conditioning

Question 11

what reflex in dogs did Pavlov study?

Answer 11

salivation

Question 12

what did Pavlov note that dogs didn’t need to learn?

Answer 12

to salivate when they see food

Question 13

Pavlov knew he needed to put food in a dog’s mouth for the animal to salivate. What did he notice after working with the same dog repeatedly?

Answer 13

The dog began to salivate to stimuli associated with the food.

Question 14

how were control variables maintained in Pavlovs experiment?

Answer 14

the dog was restrained in a harness inside a cubicle
isolated from all distractions

Question 15

how did the experimenter avoid becoming associated with the food?

Answer 15

observed through a one way mirror
presented the dog with food via remote control

Question 16

how was the experiment a quantitative measure?

Answer 16

a tube carried saliva from the dog’s mouth to a container where it was measured.

Question 17

how were extraneous variables controlled?

Answer 17

examples:
windows of the room covered in extra thick sheets of glass
each room had double steel doors which sealed when closed

prevented vibration, noise, temperature extremes and odours

Question 18

what types of neutral stimuli did Pavlov use?

Answer 18

metronome
bell
buzzer

Question 19

how did Pavlov condition the stimulus of the metronome to produce the same response as the food?

Answer 19

he paired the metronome and the food

just before placing the food in the dogs mouth to produce salivation,Pavlov sounded a metronome

Question 20

after several pairings of the metronome and the food, what happened?

Answer 20

the dog began salivating to the metronome alone, in anticipation of the meat powder

Question 21

how many times did the tone and the food need to be paired for the dog to salivate from the tone alone?

Answer 21

usually 20 or more

Question 22

what were the quantitative results of the metronome study?

Answer 22

salivation started after 9 seconds
by 45 seconds, 11 drops had been collected

Question 23

what order did the stimuli have to be presented for salivation to occur from the conditioned stimulus?

Answer 23

when the NS / CS was presented before the UCS,
not if it came after

Question 24

what could distract or affect the acquired learning?

Answer 24

the dog had to be alert

no other stimuli present to distract or affect the acquired learning.

Question 25

what is associative learning?

Answer 25

related one stimulus to another

Question 26

how did Pavlov establish reliability of his findings?

Answer 26

he set out to see if the same system of learning would work with neutral stimuli

for example, the presentation of a vanilla odour, and a visual test involving a rotating disc being seen prior to food being given

or

a shape or colour (CS2) with the sound of a metronome (CS1)

Question 27

what did Pavlov find out about higher order conditioning?

Answer 27

that it was possible

Question 28

did the dogs generalise the conditioned stimulus?

Answer 28

showed stimulus generalisation to sounds that were of a similar tone

were able to discriminate between sounds that were of quite a different tone

Question 29

what happens when there is more similarity between a new neutral stimulus and the conditioned stimulus?

Answer 29

the greater amount of drooling from the dog

Question 30

what were the two conclusions from Pavlovs experiment?

Answer 30

signalisation in the brain links the metronome to the food

conditioning is sensitive to many extraneous variables and to individual differences

Question 31

what was the aims of Pavlov’s study?

Answer 31

to study how the cerebral cortex works in making associations

to look for a mechanism linking reflexes to the cerebral cortex

explain the role of conditioned reflexes in the eating behaviour of dogs

explore how salivation becomes associated with new stimuli apparently unrelated to food and the properties of this association

Question 32

why does Pavlov’s study have low generalisability?

Answer 32

human and dogs brains are structurally different

used dogs to study cerebral cortex and humans have a bigger cerebral cortex to allow more complex processing

Question 33

why was the study reliable?

Answer 33

it had a standardised procedure
as Pavlov ensured each time that the pairing was followed by food.

other studies investigating the cc show the same thing

Question 34

why did the study have good internal validity?

Answer 34

operationalised the dependent variable by recording the amount of saliva produced during and after conditioning

Question 35

What can be said about the ethics of the study?

Answer 35

Pavlov can be claimed to improperly caged the dogs

the dogs were in a small room and tied to a harness for periods of the study

Question 36

why is the study objective?

Answer 36

quantitative measurement of saliva

high control over situations variables

Question 37

is the study high in mundane realism? explain answer

Answer 37

yes
dogs are trained in similar ways

or

no
we don’t harness the dogs up

Question 38

is the study high or low in ecological validity and why?

Answer 38

low

a dog is not normally kept in a room with little stimuli other than the sound of a metronome and food

dogs are not normally isolated in a small room

Question 39

How has this study have application to real life?

Answer 39

development of therapies such as aversion therapy

c.c. has been used in big companies in advertising to make people buy their products

Question 40

how does antromorphism link to the study?

Answer 40

we can’t assume that humans and animals behave for the same reasons.

cannot generalise findings