Pavlov Flashcards
What are the aims of Pavlov’s study?
- Explaining the role of conditioned responses in the eating behaviour of dogs
- Exploring how salivation becomes associated with the new stimuli appearing unrelated to food and the properties of this association
How were extraneous varibles controlled in Pavlov’s study?
Soundproof
What type of experiement was Pavlov’s study?
Lab
What was the DV for Pavlov’s experiment?
Salivation
What was Pavlov’s procedure?
Pavlov established a baseline by measuring salivation in response to the neutral stimulus (NS) for example a metronome or buzzer. Then he would pair the NS with the Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) of food, usually around 20 times.
Pavlov varied the presentation so that the NS was presented before (forward conditioning) or after the UCS (backward conditioning)
Further variations in the procedure were used to investigate extinction and spontaneous recovery of salivation, for example the NS (e.g. metronome) now a conditioned stimulus (CS), was presented several times without the UCS which produced extinction.
What were the findings of Pavlov’s study?
An NS, such as the sound of a metronome or bell, did not initially elicit a salivation response, whereas the UCS of food elicited immediate salivation.
After forward pairings of NS and UCS, the NS typically did elicit salivation after it was presented for a few seconds. In one trial Pavlov recorded that salivation commenced 9 seconds after the metronome sound with 45 drops of saliva being collected.
No salivation was recorded in response to the NS in backwards pairing.
Pavlov noted that the salivation reflec only became associated with an NS if the dog was alert and undistracted.
Extinction of salivation could be seen as the salivary volume declined after repeated presentation of the CS without the UCS. The Salivary response to the CS spontaneously recovered on some occasions.
What are the conclusions for Pavlov’s study?
A link is likely to be made in the brain between a UCS and an NS that occurs just before the UCS. Pavlov called this signalisation which has survival value in preparing an organism for events.
