Pavlov Flashcards
What was the aim of Pavlov’s study?
- To see if associating a reflex with a NS causes learning to take place, producing a conditioned reflex in new situations.
What was the sample of Pavlov’s study?
35 dogs of a variety of breeds, raised in kennels in the lab.
What was Pavlov’s procedure?
- Placed each dog in a sealed room that didn’t allow the dog to see, smell or hear anything outside (prevent external stimuli making dog salivate).
- Dog strapped into harness to stop it moving, and its mouth linked to tube to drain saliva away into measuring bottle.
- Control cond.
- Experimental control.
- Conditioned the dog.
What happened in the Control Condition?
Pavlov presented dog with food (meat powder) through a hatch. Dog salivated.
What did Pavlov do as an Experimental Control?
Presented dog with NS sound. Dog didn’t salivate at this, showing it was a NS.
How did Pavlov condition the dog?
Paired the NS with the presentation of food. He did this 20 times, but depended on how attentive the dog was. After it was conditioned, Pavlov presented dog with sound but no meat.
What were Pavlov’s results?
Conditioned dog salivated 9 seconds after hearing the sound and, by 45 seconds, had produced 11 drops of saliva.
What did Pavlov conclude?
- Classical cond: NS being repeatedly paired with UCS turned into CS, producing CR (salivation) by itself.
- Brain learns to see the new sound as a “signal” and links the reflex to it. This is how animals in the wild learn to hunt or escape being hunted:
- They apply their reflexes to new situations based on experiences they’ve had before.
Was Pavlov’s study Reliable?
Yes✅:
- Used standardised procedures that were carefully documented. Also, Pavlov repeated his study many times over 25 years with different dogs and stimuli.
- Also, got different researchers to observe the dog and measure the saliva.
- Increased inter-rater reliability and test-retest relibalility.
Was Pavlov Generalisable?
No❌:
- This was a study on dogs, which have a different brain to humans. Humans have more complicated thoughts and motives, and are not strongly motivated by finding food all the time, for example.
- Therefore, results from this do not represent humans, so maybe aren’t applicable.
Was Pavlov’s study Valid?
Yes✅:
- Controlled setting makes his findings objective and scientifically credible. He did his best to remove extrenous variables that would’ve caused dogs to salivate so that it was only the stimuli he was testing that caused salivation.
- Internal validity.
No❌:
- Study had low ecological validity. Dogs kept in very unusual conditions (tied up in a harness in a box, cut off from other dogs and humans, with a drip feed attached to their mouths) and were presented with odd stimuli.
- Therefore there was nothing normal/natural about their reactions.
Was Pavlov’s study ethical?
No❌:
- If his research was carried out today, it would be considered to be very unethical - tying dogs up into boxes alone and subjected them to surgery.
- but there were no ethical guidelines for psychologists in the early 20th century.
