1 In his article, Matthew Adams outlines the background to the original Pavlov experiments into what is now known as classical conditioning. As you read through the article, there appears to be a more concerning ‘dark side’ to the way Pavlov and his associates recruited and then treated his many dogs in these experiments. Do you think such treatment might influence the dogs’ resultant reflexive behaviours and, if so, does the original theory of classical conditioning now need to be re-examined or re-evaluated? (Hint: would a ‘normal, happy and healthy dog’ respond in this way to a similar learning task?)
2 In order to produce a theory of classical conditioning, Pavlov ‘hid’ individual differences in how his dogs reacted on different days and to different stimuli. How might these findings have undermined the credibility of his scientific theory of classical conditioning if all of these extraneous variables were uncovered at the time? In your view, should he have disclosed his ‘messy’ data sets at the time? Justify your answer.
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