Pavlov Soundproof Lab

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To start off, Pavlov had to create a soundproof lab. This soundproof lab, built at the Institute of Experimental Medicine in Petrograd, guarded the dogs from any outside noises, external stimulus, and even the experimenters. All of this was done so only the stimulus needed for this project was present allowing the data to be recorded with no actual interaction between the subjects and the researchers. Once Pavlov was officially done setting up his controlled environment, he started his project which was very easy/basic. It is important to remember that food produces a natural/unconditioned response of saliva in the subjects. The next step involved Pavlov trying to find neutral stimulus in the subject, which was not related to food at all. Pavlov used the sound of the metronome as the neutral stimulus. …show more content…

Pavlov found that “a stimulus which was neutral to itself had been superimposed upon the action of the inborn alimentary reflex. We observed that, after several repetitions of the combined stimulation, the sounds of the metronome had had acquired the property of stimulation salivary secretion.” This means that the sound of the metronome was now a conditioned stimulus for the response of salivation which was found to also be a conditioned stimulus. Pavlov wanted to try different neutral stimulus and unconditioned stimulus to see if the same results would occur. This time to expose the dogs to a vanilla scent and subsequently put a lemon in their mouth causing their mouth to salivate. The process was repeated multiple times, twenty be exact. After the twenty presentations of the vanilla scent and the lemon pair, when they would present the vanilla smell it would cause the learned habit, saliva to start forming. The next test was a visual one. In this test the subjects were presented to a rotating object and then food, which of course caused the dog to

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