Pavlov 1927 (4)

Question 1

What were the aims of Pavlovs (1927) experiment?

Answer 1

Pavlov aimed to learn about the salivation reflex in dogs and noticed the reflex began to occur not only to food but other factors present at the time which lead him to move towards attempting to pair things with the reflex.
He was interested in explaining the role of conditioned reflexs in eating behaviour and exploring how salivating became paired with a new stimuli.

Question 2

Evaluation: Pavlovs (1927) experiment - Validity

Answer 2

A strength of Pavlov’s experiment is its validity. He removed all external influences and used soundproof rooms to conduct the metronome experiment so nothing else interfered. He also collected saliva so there was proof of more than his own observation.

Question 3

Evaluation: Pavlovs (1927) experiment - Application

Answer 3

Pavlov’s study has clinical application is helping understand problems with eating behaviours. Obesity can be particularly understood. Anita Jansen suggested that overweight children had acquired a very strong salivation response.

Question 4

Evaluation: Pavlovs (1927) experiment - Generalisabiliy

Answer 4

A weakness of Pavlov’s work was that it was only conducted on animals (dogs) and therefore there’s no evidence its generalisable to people. Humans brains are structurally different from many animals and have a larger cerebral cortex which allows more cognitive processing.

Question 5

Evaluation: Pavlovs (1927) experiment - Competing arguments about it only being applicable in animals

Answer 5

Studies such as Little Albert (Watson and Raynor) showed that classical conditioning does take place in people however humans can try top consciously overcome conditioned reflexes, this is very difficult.

Question 6

What were the findings of Pavlovs (1927) experiment?

Answer 6

Pavlov found a NS such as the sound of a metronome did not initially cause a salivation response whereas the UCS would prior to conditioning. After both of these happened in sync multiple times however the metronome would cause salivation. After multiple times without the NS the response would go extinct.

Question 7

What were the conclusions of Pavlovs (1927) experiment?

Answer 7

A link is to be made in the brain between the unconditioned stimulus and the NS that appears just before the UCS. Pavlov called this signalisation which has a survival value when preparing an organism for events.

Question 8

What were the procedures of Pavlovs (1927) experiment?

Answer 8

Pavlov would observe a dogs salivary reaction to food and then other normal objects
He’d then attempt to pair these by using them simultaneously like using a metronome while feeding the dog
He’d repeat this 20 times
He’d then tests if the normal object would produce the salivary response.
He’d keep using the normal object until the reaction went extinct.