Pavlov (1927)

Question 1

What were the aims of Pavlov’s study?

Answer 1

• To investigate whether you could condition a dog to salivate at the noise of a bell
• To investigate whether changing the noise of a bell to a metronome has the same effect

Question 2

What type of method was used?

Answer 2

Lab

Question 3

Briefly describe the procedure of this study.

Answer 3

• Kept the dog in an isolated room strapped to a harness
• He used a bell as the neutral stimulus and the food as the unconditioned stimulus, with salivation as the unconditioned response
• He paired the sound of the bell with the dog’s food by ringing the bell before sliding the food through a gap
• Saliva was collected through a tube connected to the dog’s mouth

Question 4

What were the results of Pavlov’s study?

Answer 4

After several pairings of the bell with the food, the dog began to salivate at the sound of the bell in anticipation to the food and so the bell became the conditioned stimulus and the salivation the conditioned response.

Question 5

Describe the conclusion of his experiment.

Answer 5

He established the existence of associative learning and stated that we can learn desired behavioural responses when present with a certain stimulus through classical conditioning.

Question 6

Define ‘higher order conditioning’.

Answer 6

When a new neutral stimulus is paired with a conditioned stimulus to produce the same conditioned response as what the conditioned stimulus elicits.

Question 7

Describe the scientific formula for higher order conditioning with the example of a bell and light using the 3 stages of classical conditioning.

Answer 7

1) Before
Light (NS) --> No response
Bell (CS1) --> Salivation (CS1)
2) During
Light (NS) + Bell (CS1) --> Salivation (CR1)
3) After
Light (CS2) --> Salivation (CR2)

Question 8

Evaluate the low generalisability.

Answer 8

P - Low
E - Pavlov used a dog as his sample
E - Can’t generalise to humans due to them being more complex with qualitative differences

Question 9

Evaluate the reliability using 2 high points.

Answer 9

P - High
E - Pavlov repeated the experiment using other stimuli such as a light, buzzer and metronome
E - Found the same results each time
P - High
E - Followed a standardised procedure (sounding the bell before the food was presented)
E - Easily replicable

Question 10

Are there any applications?

Answer 10

P - Yes
E - It has lead to treatments of phobias through systematic desensitisation by pairing a phobia with something good
E - Demonstrating that the principles of classical conditioning can be used to help people with phobias

Question 11

Evaluate the validity using a low and high point.

Answer 11

P - Low ecological
E - Dog was placed in an unnatural environment (such as being strapped to a harness)
E - May not represent behaviour in real life
P - High
E - Carried out in a lab environment with strict control over EVs as dog was placed in isolated room
E - Can establish cause and effect

Question 12

Evaluate an ethical issue.

Answer 12

P - Unethical
E - Dog was kept in an isolated room and they are social animals
E - May have experienced distress and broken the isolation and crowding guideline