Classical Conditioning is about how a stimulus is associated with a response.
A stimulus is something in our environment that affects us whereas a response is our reaction to a stimulus
It applies only to the conditioning of reflexes, for example a startle (fear) response
Fear can be conditioned as a reflexive response to something that has occured in an individual's life (such as stress) e.g in a specific location such as a lift.
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The Process Of Classical Conditioning
In Classical Conditioning, the stimulus is what is done to the person or animal and the response is the reflex reaction of that person or animal to that stimulus
Classical conditioning explains how someone can be conditioned into a response from a stimulus that is not the one that would naturally produce that response.
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Pavlov - Classical Conditioning in Dogs (1927)
Aim: to investigate if dogs could learn to associate a neutral stimulus of a metronome with receiving food, producing a salivation response (Conditioned Response)
Procedure: Pavlov's dogs had a tube attached to their salivary glands, which drained the saliva into measuring apparatus. Each dog was placed into an isolated, sound proofed room and restrained in a harness. Pavlov set up a series of trials to test this. The dog was fed a bowl of meat and a metronome was heard for a few seconds or the metronome was started but no food was given.
Before learning: food leads to salivation. The sound of a metronome produces no response
During learning: the food is repeatedly paired with the metronome, this leads to salivation
Results: Dogs learnt to salivate at the sound of a metronome with no food present. Dogs salivate 9 seconds after hearing the metronome and by 45 seconds had produced 11 drops of saliva.
Conclusion: It is possible to condition an automatic reflex to occur in the presence of a neutral stimulus as the dogs learnt to associate salivation with sound rather than with food via a process called 'signalisation' in the cerebral cortex.
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Evaluation issues with Pavlov's 1927 study
Generalisability= low generalisability as it uses dogs to try and explain human behaviour so therefore results cannot be accurate of human behaviour
Reliability= high reliability as there were the use of controls (restrained in a harness) and it was a standardised procedure which means the study can be repeated and gather similar results
Validity= controlled setting so reduced confounding variables
Low Ecological Validity= unnatural setting so dogs may not elicit true behaviour
Ethics= high ethics uses Bateson's decision cube, low animal suffering, dogs fed and watered
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