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Pavlov (1927): Experiments with salivation in dogs (Results (Metronome…
Pavlov (1927)
: Experiments with salivation in dogs
Aim
To look at reflexes and to work out pathways in the brain
Natural associations between stimuli and responses in organisms
Method
Laboratory experiment with dogs
Results
Metronome study
Salivation after 9 secs
By 45 secs 11 drops collected
There could be secondary conditioning when the first CS (metronome) which gives the CR (salivation) is paired with another neutral stimulus (buzzer), which can become the CS to give CR
Conclusions
'Signalisation' in the brain links metronome to food, giving the CR of salivation
In a natural environment the dog would salivate to the meat but would have to find meat so learning to salivate to a stimulus such as the smell of meat would be useful
Signalisation is needed to survive (learned association between metronome and meat) and natural inborn reflexive responses (salivation to meat)
Not all dogs were the same - same experiment done on two different dogs produced opposite results
Evaluation
Strengths
Carefully controlled experiments and environments, except for the variables tested, any stimuli would produce a CS so had to control for all stimulus other than the stimulus being studied =
objective and scientifically credible results
Repeated experiments on dogs, and continually found the conditioned stimuli would produce CS (buzzer and metronome) =
reliability
Weaknesses
Lack of validity by taking naturalness away, dog was in a chamber and no other stimuli was present so 'real-life' behaviour isn't looked at,
so data isn't valid.
f
MRI scanning was not around
at that time, so he couldn't measure brain activity in any direct way and
assumed what happened in the cerebral cortex
from the dogs.
Procedure
Discovered the cerebral cortex was needed for survival, not just reflexes
The reflex was salivation to the food, salivation reflex there to reject 'bad' food from the mouth
Salivation is measurable, quantity can be measured in a glass tube
Apparatus to measure saliva and isolating variables that the dog would have as stimuli like the experimenter (e.g blinking or moving)
Special chamber built for the dog so they wouldn't hear footsteps, isolating all variables
Lecture II
Dog salivated to the metronome paired with the food (unconditioned stimulus), then without the food (conditioned stimulus)
Pavlov explains usually the pairing in the conditioning task takes place 20 times, but there are variations depending on strength of CS
Meat also put in the dog's mouth to check salivation reflex
Nature of link between metronome and salivation reflex compared with meat and salivation complex
Meat is a ready-made link and the metronome beat is different
Link goes through higher-order paths in the cortex, making new paths
CR = salivation to metronome
UCR = salivation to meat