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Test: MCAT Social and Behavioral Sciences
Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov extensively studied learning in animals. Most significantly, he contributed to the idea that is currently referred to as classical conditioning. Many know him from the popularly cited Pavlovian dog study from the greater experiment known as Lectures on the Function of the Principle Digestive Glands (1897).
In the Pavlovian dog experiment, Pavlov paired a neutral stimulus with a pleasurable one. The neutral stimulus was the ringing sound of a metronome, while the pleasurable stimulus was food. Pavlov never fed his dogs without ringing the metronome first, and as a result, his dogs would later salivate upon hearing the sound of the metronome. This learning process is known as conditioning, and this this specific instance, classical conditioning.
Later, Pavlov began ringing the metronome without feeding the dogs. As a result, the dogs eventually stopped salivating upon hearing the metronome. This is known as extinction. Finally, upon reintroducing the metronome/food pairing, the dogs quickly began salivating again, which is known as spontaneous recovery.
| 1. | The passage describes classical conditioning, which of the following best describes the relationship between classical conditioning and operant conditioning. |
Operant conditioning pairs a behavior with an arbitrary stimulus, while classical conditioning pairs a behavior with a punishment or a reward.
Both operant and classical conditioning pair a behavior with an arbitrary stimulus.
Both operant and classical conditioning pair a behavior with a punishment or a reward.
Classical conditioning pairs a behavior with an arbitrary stimulus, while operant conditioning pairs a behavior with a punishment or a reward.
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