pavlov
aim
procedure
findings
evaluation
in particular, to see if associating a reflex with a NS causes learning to take place, producing a CR
to find out if a reflexive behaviour can be produced in new situations
DV= drops of saliva
IV= dogs natural reflexive behaviour
35 dogs, variety of breeds
placed each dog in a sealed room to prevent any variables that may cause the dog to salivate
lab experiment
used a metronome as a neutral stimulus
varied presentation of NS before or after UCS (backward/ forward conditioning)
paired metronome with food (UCS) around 20 times
further variations in procedure included investigating spontaneous recovery and extinction
forward pairings of NS and UCS, the NS did typically elicit salivation after presented for a few seconds
in one trial salivation occurred 9 seconds after metronome sound with 45 drops of saliva being collected
NS did not initially produce a response whereas UCS of food produced immediate salivation
no salivation recorded in backwards pairing
conclusions
click to edit
-low gen to humans, less representative to whole population. structurally different brains, humans have bigger cerebral cortex
+standardised procedure, replicable thus reliable
+good experimental controls- reduced impact of variables by using the sealed room
+demonstrates that CC can be generalisable to humans, Watson and Rayner, 'little albert'
-unethical, the fistula and harness does not correlate in line with animal ethical guidelines yet they were not any ethical guidelines in place at the temporal period Pavlov conducted study
+variety of breeds so could be representative of dogs