Rick Stevens suggested: "One possibility for why we don't remember the metronome could be that it doesn't fit well into our schemas for CS. My limited memory of a metronome is a thing on a piano that makes noise continuously. A bell is more of a discrete stimulus." I think this is exactly why the bell vs. metronome is a useful pedagogical distinction. A bell is a discrete stimulus that would work as a CS in trace conditioning (where there is a trace interval between the off-set of the CS and the onset of the US) and a metronome or buzzer would work as a CS in delay conditioning (where the CS continues and overlaps with the onset of the US). The delay procedure usually produces the quickest learning so, although the discrete bell would work, it would take longer to train than the metronome or buzzer. I think the delay procedure would have been likely to have been used more often except when studying the effects of trace conditioning.
To do some myth-building myself, the metronome always made sense to me as the logical next step after Pavlov discovered that the dogs he was studying for his work on digestion were salivating before the food was put into their mouths. I assume (without evidence) that they hypothesized that the dogs began salivating to the "psychic" stimulus of the footsteps of the lab assistant approaching to provide the food and then the metronome was eventually used to simulate approaching footsteps. So that's my myth. Rick Dr. Rick Froman, Chair Division of Humanities and Social Sciences Professor of Psychology Box 3519 John Brown University 2000 W. University Siloam Springs, AR 72761 [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> (479) 524-7295 http://bit.ly/DrFroman --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=28164 or send a blank email to leave-28164-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
