100 Chapter 7Practical feline examples
● It is very common for both dogs and cats to become sensitized and highly fearful
of fireworks. This is because fireworks are very loud and unpredictable. Plus, the
sound of the first firework going off is likely to increase the animal’s fear arousal
sufficiently to allow sensitization to occur more readily with each subsequent
repetition.
● Cats are also more likely to become sensitized to potentially frightening sights,
sounds and even smells when at the veterinary practice or when travelling, owing
to an already heightened state of fear arousal at the time.
Associative Learning
Habituation and sensitization are the most basic forms of learning that stem from the
presentation of a single stimulus. Associative learning involves two events occurring
together and a learned association being made between the two.
Classical conditioning
This is the learned association between a reflex reaction and an unrelated stimulus
that would not otherwise cause the reaction.
Reflex reactions
These are reactions to stimuli that occur without any conscious thought or prior
experience. For example, touching something hot or otherwise painful can cause a
reflexive withdrawal; the smell or taste of food can cause the reflexive production of
saliva; and a sudden loud and unexpected sound can produce a reflexive startle
response.
Pavlov’s conditioned reflexes
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was a Russian physiologist with an interest in the physiology
of digestion. One of his research experiments was designed to measure the salivary
secretions of dogs. During his study he noticed that the dogs did not only salivate
when food was placed in their mouths but saliva was also produced at other times.
He observed that the saliva production was not random but occurred in response to
specific stimuli such as the sight or sound of the person that fed the dogs. After
becoming aware of this phenomenon, Pavlov altered his experiments in order to dis-
cover more about it.
This involved the following process:
- The presentation of food, with no other stimulus. This caused the production of
saliva. Pavlov called this the ‘Unconditioned Response’ (UR).