BCA Semester II
Additional English Notes
IVAN PAVLOV
1)
Why was it of such importance to treat the dogs with care and consideration?
Ans. Pavlov is said to have treated his dogs with considerable care and consideration. He could not conduct his experiments on corpses, naturally enough; therefore it was in his own interests to ensure that the dogs survived both the surgery, and the experiments to which they were subjected. Such was his care, that the dogs often survived into a more advanced old age than they might have done if they had been kept as pets.
2) Why do you suppose the Russian authorities were so generous in their treatment of Pavlov?
Ans. Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was born in Ryazan, in what was then imperial Russia, in September 1849. His medical research was regarded as of such importance as to deserve much generosity on the part of the state, in the shape of a special laboratory, dedicated to his use, and all the equipment and assistance that he might need.
3)
Why did Pavlov not naturally conclude that when a dog was affected by a
stimulus, the effect was a psychological one?
Ans. Pavlov said the dogs were demonstrating classical conditioning. He summed it up like this: there's a neutral stimulus (the buzzer), which by itself will not produce a response, like salivation. There's also a non-neutral or unconditioned stimulus (the food), which will produce an unconditioned response (salivation).
4)
What did Pavlov mean when he said that salivation was an unconditioned response
to the sight of meat?
Ans. Pavlov, whose systematic approach to physiology had revolutionized the study of medicine, as “a star which lights the world, shining down a vista hitherto unexplored.” That unexplored world was the mechanics of the human brain. Pavlov had noticed, in his research on the digestive system of dogs, which they drooled as soon as they saw the white lab coats of the people who fed them. They didn’t need to see, let alone taste, the food in order to react physically. Dogs naturally drooled when fed: that was, in Pavlov’s terms, an “unconditional” reflex.
5)
In what sense was the sound of the buzzer a conditioned response?
Ans.
When dog drooled in response to a sight or sound that was associated with food
by mere happenstance, a “conditional reflex” (to a “conditional stimulus”) had
been created. Pavlov had formulated a basic psychological principle—one that
also applied to human beings—and discovered an objective way to measure how it
worked. In this experiment, the meat is unconditioned stimulus, and the
expected response that is, salivating to the meat is called as unconditioned
response. The sound of a bell is a neutral stimulus which does not have any
property to elicit salivation, is called as conditioned stimulus.
6)
Why did the dog salivate at the sound of the buzzer, even when no food was
presented to it?
Ans.
Pavlov decided to link both the presentation of meat and the ringing of the
buzzer one after the other with an interval of 5 minutes. After repeatedly
hearing the buzzer before getting the meat, the dog began to salivate as soon
the bell rang. There was an association or link between meat and ringing a
buzzer. After repeating the association between meat and ringing a buzzer, the
dog started salivating merely at the sound of the buzzer, even if no food was
offered. The dog is now conditioned to respond to a sound of a bell and started
salivating. This is called classical conditioning process. Thus, classical
condition is defined as the formation of S-R link (Stimulus- Response) or habit
between a conditioned stimulus and a conditioned response through the repeated
paring of conditioned stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus.
7)
Why did the dog not salivate when the buzzer was sounded several times?
Ans.
Once a dog has learned to salivate to the buzzer, does this reflex continue to
occur if the buzzer is sounded for many trails without the meat (unconditioned
stimulus). Pavlov found that without meat, the buzzer elicits less and less
salivation on each trail and eventually stopped salivating once for all. This
phenomenon is called as extinction.
8)
When was a metronome a more effective, and when was it a less effective
stimulus than a buzzer?
Ans. Pavlov’s example is a dog first trained with three separate positive stimuli: a flashing light, a tone of C sharp and a rotating disc. All these were signals for food and made the dog salivate. Then an ‘inhibitory combination’ was formed by sounding a metronome along with the sight of the rotating disc, this combination never being followed by food. The dog learned not to salivate to this combination. Then the inhibitory effects of the metronome could be tested by sounding it for the first time along with the other positive signals of the tone and the flashing light. When this was done the usual salivation produced by these stimuli was virtually eliminated. Having taken the precaution of showing that the metronome did not stop salivation before it had been established as an indication of ‘no food’, Pavlov felt justified in concluding that the metronome had become a ‘conditioned inhibitor’
9)
How did a dog learn to distinguish between one musical note and another?
Ans.
Individuals can respond differently in the presence of two separate stimuli on
the basis of differences in their characteristics. In the salivation
experiment, the dog was conditioned to salivate to the sound of buzzer and not
to the sound of any other sound. In due course of time, the dog was able to
discriminate the sounds which are relatively different from the ideal buzzer
sound. The dog, on the basis of stimulus dissimilarity, responds differently to
the sounds of different tones by salivating only to the sound of a buzzer and
not to any other mode of sound such as bell, metronome, musical note etc. The
dog had shown stimulus discrimination.
10)
Why is not appropriate, perhaps, to say that the dog learned to delay its
response to the stimulus?
Ans.
In another experiment, dog is conditioned to salivate to the sight of Black
Square and not to any other colored square. After a series of trails in which
presentation of gray square were never followed by food and the presentation of
the Black Square were always followed by food, the dog stopped salivating to
the gray square and continued to salivate to the black one. The researchers
continued this procedure with even-darker shades of gray, until the dog is
conditioned to discriminate a Black Square from the gray shades.
11) Why was it necessary to record every single detail of the circumstances in which the experiments were carried out?
Ans. An experiment is a procedure carried out to support, refute, or validate a hypothesis. . Experiments and other types of hands-on activities are very important to student . Ideally, all variables in an experiment are controlled. In engineering and the physical sciences, experiments are a primary component of the scientific method. They are used to test theories and hypotheses about how physical processes work under particular conditions (e.g., whether a particular engineering process can produce a desired chemical compound).
12)
Why did Pavlov himself not conduct stimulus-response experiments?
Ans. Pavlov himself never worked directly on conditioned reflexes, he was too impatient a man to watch, or carry out a procedure which took a long time without apparent results. His strength lay in being able to oversee all the experiments going on simultaneously, to make sense of the findings, to write reports on them, to publish those reports, and to lecture on the findings.
13)
What do you suppose was ‘exhilarating’ about his findings?
Ans.
Classical conditioning emphasizes the importance of learning from the
environment, and supports nurture over nature. However, it is limiting to
describe behavior solely in terms of either nature or nurture, and attempts to
do this underestimate the complexity of human behavior. Principles of Classical
Conditioning. Classical conditioning is a form of associative learning, first
discovered by Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov, while experimenting on
digestion process of dogs. The theory generally refers to acquiring of new
behavior via association with various stimuli.
14)
Why, according to Pavlov, do we stop at a red traffic light?
Ans.
In traffic control, the drivers are learned to respond to different colors of
signal and maintain the order in the traffic regulation. Stimulus
generalization and discrimination are highly important as facilitator of
learning through classical conditioning. Because of our ability to recognize
similarities, individuals are able to transfer what we already know to new
situations through the process of stimulus association and generalization.
Classical conditioning is a major avenue of learning among individuals in work
organizations. For example, trainer in organization take great care to make
sure that conditions in the classroom or training facility are as similar as
possible to actual work conditions in order to assure that what is learned can
be transferred to the job.
Ivan
Pavlov
Ivan
Pavlov came up with the concept of Classical Conditioning. This is when a
person's or animal's old response becomes attached to a new stimulus. Classical
conditioning is an example of learning. Learning is the relatively permanent
change in behavior that results from experience. Pavlov stumbled across
classical conditioning accidentally when studying the digestive system of dogs.
- Pavlov experimented with Classical conditioning by ringing a tuning fork and
then immediately placing food in front of the dog. He chose the tuning fork
because it was a neutral stimulus. This means it had nothing to do with the
dog's response (salivating) when shown the food. A dog does not naturally
salivate when it sees a tuning fork, it has to be taught to do so. After only a
few trials the dog salivated when hearing the tuning fork even when no food was
given. Classical conditioning had occurred. In this experiment the food was the
unconditioned stimulus (UCS). This means the dog did not have to be taught or
conditioned to salivate when given the stimulus (food). Food normally causes a dog
to salivate. The actual salivation of the dog is the unconditioned response
(UCR). The dog did not have to been conditioned or taught to salivate when
seeing the food. Most UCR are reflexes. Also in this experiment the tuning fork
was the conditioned stimulus (CS). The dog had to be taught or conditioned to
salivate when seeing the tuning fork. The salivating of the dog due to the
tuning fork was the Conditioned Response (CR). - Generalization occurs when a
similar stimulus is presented like the stimulus that was conditioned. For
example, Pavlov rang a bell instead of a tuning fork. The bell was similar
enough to the tuning fork that the dog still salivated. - Discrimination is the
ability to distinguish between two different stimuli. For example, if Pavlov
pushed a buzzer and the dog didn't salivate because it was too different to get
the same response as the tuning fork. - Extinction is the gradual disappearance
of a conditioned response. For example, if Pavlov would have stopped feeding
the dog when ringing the tuning fork, the dog would have eventually lost his
conditioning.
