classical conditioning

what is classical conditioning?

learning through association

what is a stimulus?

something in the environment that produces a response

what is a response?

something involuntary that happens after a stimulus is received

what happens before conditioning?

the unconditioned stimulus is paired with the unconditioned response, with the neutral stimulus not gaining any response

what happens during conditioning?

the unconditioned stimulus is paired with the neutral stimulus to gain an unconditioned response

what happens after conditioning?

the conditioned stimulus gains the conditioned response

what is stimulus generalisation?

when the neutral stimulus, which becomes the conditioned stimulus, is not used exactly but still gains the conditioned response

how could stimulus generalisation have been shown in Pavlov's dogs?

the dog continued to salivate to the sound of a bell with a similar tone, even if it was not the original one used

what is spontaneous recovery?

the spontaneous reappearance of a conditioned response after it has been extinguished

how could spontaneous recovery have been shown in Pavlov's dogs?

if a dog is taken out of the experiment and then brought back later it may salivate spontaneously at the sound of a bell

what is extinction?

when a conditioned stimulus no longer leads to a conditioned response

how could extinction have been shown in Pavlov's dogs?

dogs trained to salivate at the sound of a bell were no longer given the food and the bell alone was presented many times, causing them to eventually stop salivating

how did Pavlov find he could weaken a learnt behaviour?

by dissolving the link between the conditioned stimulus and conditioned response

when did Pavlov carry out his study on dogs?

1927

what was the initial aim of Pavlov's dogs?

to learn about the salivation reflex

what did Pavlov note salivation in dogs occurred to?

food and stimuli that typically occurred close in time to the presentation of food

what did the aim of Pavlov's dogs shift towards?

exploring conditioned reflexes

what was Pavlov's study interested in?

the role of conditioned reflexes in the eating behaviour of dogs, and how salivation becomes associated with new stimuli apparently unrelated to food and the property of this association

why did Pavlov choose to focus on salivation?

it was measurable as drops can be counted or measured in a glass tube

what was Pavlov's best known method?

an experimental procedure involving collecting saliva from the salivary glands of an immobilised dog

what type of experiment was used in Pavlov's dogs?

a lab experiment

where did the procedure of Pavlov's dogs take place?

a soundproof chamber in order to minimise the effects the extraneous variables, such as noise

what did Pavlov use to collect the drops of saliva from the dogs?

a cannula

how was a baseline measured in Pavlov's study?

by measuring salivation in response to the neutral stimulus (the bell)

how many times was the neutral stimulus paired with the unconditioned stimulus in Pavlov's dogs?

around 20 times

what initially did not cause the dogs to salivate in Pavlov's study?

the neutral stimulus

what initially caused the dogs to salivate immediately in Pavlov's study?

the unconditioned stimulus

what happened after several pairings of the neutral stimulus and unconditioned stimulus in Pavlov's study?

the neutral stimulus could be presented alone, and after a few seconds the dog would start to salivate

what was recorded from one of the trials of Pavlov's study?

salivation started 9 seconds after the sound of the bell with 45 drops of saliva collected

when did the salivation reflex only become associated with the neutral stimulus in Pavlov's dogs?

if the dog was alert and undistracted

what was the conclusion of Pavlov's dogs?

a link is likely to be made in the brain between the unconditioned stimulus and neutral stimulus, and that dogs could learn through association