Classical conditioning - Pavlov’s dogs study

Question 1

What made Pavlov develop classical conditioning?

Answer 1

Studying secretion in dogs - salivation

Question 2

What did Pavlov discover about dogs?

Answer 2

• When food put in dogs mouth, they salivate
• When working with same dog repeatedly, dog salivates to stimuli associated with food
• There’s some things a dog doesnt learn (e.g. dogs dont learn to salivate when seeing food)

Question 3

What was the aim of Pavlov’s study?

Answer 3

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

Question 4

What was the standardised procedure of this study?

Answer 4

• Tube carried saliva from dogs mouth to container to be measured
• Windows covered with extra thick glass
• Rooms had double steel doors that sealed when closed
• Deep moat filled with straw encircled building
• Steel girders supporting floors were embedded in sand

Question 5

What extraneous variables did the standardised procedure control?

Answer 5

• Vibration
• Noise
• Temp extremes
• Odours
• Drafts

Question 6

How was this study unethical?

Answer 6

Dog isolated in small room + couldn’t hear footsteps outside, restrained in cubicle, isolated from all distractions

Question 7

What neutral stimuli did Pavlov use in his experiments?

Answer 7

Metronome, bell, buzzer

He then paired this with food (UCS) to condition new stimulus to produce same response

Question 8

What was the method of the study?

Answer 8

1. Before putting food in dogs mouth, Pacvlov sounded metronome
2. After several pairings of metronome + food (usually 20+), dog salivated to metronome alone

Using this procedure, Pavlov conditioned dogs to salivate to other stimuli using higher conditioning process (light, touch on leg, sight of circle)

Question 9

What were the results of the study?

Answer 9

In metronome study, salivation started after 9 secs + by 45 secs, 11 drops collected

Found dog had to be alert

Dog would only salivate if NA/CS presented before UCS, not after

Question 10

How did Pavlov establish reliability of study?

Answer 10

Tested to see if same system of learning would work with other neutral stimuli (e.g. presentation of vanilla odour)

Question 11

What was the conclusion of the metronome study?

Answer 11

Pavlov concludes its ‘signalisation’ in brain that links metronome to food, giving reflex response of salivation

Conditioning also found to be sensitive to extraneous variables + individual differences