Classical Conditioning - Pavlov

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General Principles of Classical Conditioning

  • 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.

Image result for diagram of classical conditioning

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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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