Pavlov

• Aim of Pavlov?

  To investigate if dogs could learn to associate a neutral stimulus of a metronome with receiving food
• Pavlovs procedure?

  • Dogs had a tube attached to their salivary glands to measure saliva produced
  • Dogs were restrained and placed in sound proofed room
  • Dog was fed a bowl of a meat and a metronome was heard or the metronome was heard with no food given
• Pavlov results?

  Dogs learned to salivate at the sound of the metronome even when there was no food presented. Pavlov found the conditioned dog started to salivate 9 seconds after hearing the metronome and by 45 seconds had produced 11 drops of saliva.
• Pavlov Conclusion?

  It was possible to condition an automatic reflex in the presence of a neutral stimulus (the metronome) as the dogs learned to associate salivation with sound rather than food.
• Pavlov study could be improved by using different stimuli such as a different sound instead of the metronome to see if these factors influence the strength of the conditioned response
• Pavlovs sample?

  35 different dog breeds that were raised in lab conditions
• Strength 1 of Pavlovs study

  Standardised procedure as all dogs either heard the metronome with food or heard it without food. This increases the reliability of the experiment as it can be repeated to check for consistencies in learning by association.
• Strength 2 of pavlovs study

  One strength is that it was high in controls as all the dogs sampled were raised in lab conditions meaning no extraneous variables would affect the results of the study on association. This means the findings on learning by association would be more accurate increasing the validity.
• Weakness 1 of Pavlovs study

  Pavlov could be considered unethical as the caging and social environment of the dogs wasn’t suitable since they were harnessed and kept in a soundproof room. This could cause distress to the dogs meaning they didn’t behave naturally meaning the findings on association from the dogs are less accurate. Lowering validity.
• Weakness 2 of Pavlov Study

  Pavlov used a restricted sample of only 35 dog breeds to test if salivation could be conditioned. This is a weakness as it is low in generalisability since findings may not be representative of how humans learn through association due to physiological differences