Research Paper Evaluation on Classical Conditioning

¶ … Implicit attitude formation though classical conditioning" (Oslon, & Fazio, 2001 p 413). The research purpose is to demons rate that "attitudes can develop through implicit covariation detection in a new classical conditioning paradigm." (Oslon, & Fazio, 2001 p 413). The study uses female undergraduate participants who view hundreds of images and words to investigate their USs (unconditioned stimuli) with novel CSs (conditioned stimuli) for the experiment. Oslon, & Fazio, (2001) identify the research problem by pointing out that an attitude formation that refers how people evaluate objects positively and negatively within an environment has become a long standing research issue within a social psychology. In essence, a form of classical conditioning and attitude acquisition has struck the curiosities in both social psychology and marketing research environments. While Oslon et al. (2001) believe that classical conditioning may serve as a primary origin or starting point of attitude, nevertheless, research investigating the classical conditioning suffers from troubled and sporadic history. Oslon et al. (2001) attempt to provide more solid evidence by showing that it is possible to develop attitude implicitly through a classical conditioning. The projected significant of the study is to solve the past research problems and provide answer on whether it is possible to develop classical implicitly through classical conditioning. Despite the elegant strategy that the authors employ in presenting the research problem and the strategy to solve the research problems, the shortcoming of the study is that the authors do not specify the research questions that ought to be answered. Polite & Beech (2012) point out that a study needs to state the research questions to solve the research problems.

Despite the identified shortcoming, Oslon, & Fazio, (2001) explore the past studies that adequately summarize the existing body of knowledge. The outcome of the literatures on classical conditioning reveals that people demonstrate a greater political slogan when providing a free meal than when they are not giving a free meal. However, the authors believe that attitudinal conditioning can happen when a person is not aware. However, "individuals sometimes show evidence of having learned a rule or association implicitly, even though they are unable to articulate any explicit, conscious knowledge of the relevant information" (Oslon, & Fazio, 2001 p 414). In essence, individuals can still demonstrate implicit learning by learning artificial grammar, and trait ascriptions.

The authors develop an experimental paradigms to reveal a procedure to investigate the implicit learning. The study provides two experiments and the participants of the first experiment consist of 45 female undergraduates under a video surveillance. In the experiment, the authors randomly present a computer screen, and "their task was to hit a response key as quickly as possible when a target image appeared." (Oslon, & Fazio, 2001 p 414). The pair of the image consist of words such as "awesome" "excellent," and images such as hot fudge sundae, and puppies. A scale is given to the participants to evaluate the images "on a scale from -4 (unpleasant) to +4 (pleasant)." (Oslon, & Fazio, 2001 p 414).

The second experiment is designed to extend and replicate the first experiment using more independent measures. For example, the authors add the IAT (Implicit Association Test) to measure the conditioning effect. A total of 56 female undergraduates also participate in the second experiment. A pair of unpleasant items such as "murder and "love" are presented to the participants, and the "pleasant items and the CS+, unpleasant items and the CS-" are used to measure the outcome of the experiments. (Oslon, & Fazio, 2001 p 415). After carrying out the evaluation task, participants were asked series of direct questions such as:

"Did you notice anything out of the ordinary in the way the words and pictures were presented?" and ended with the question, "Did you notice anything unusual about the words and images that were presented with the [Sand CS-]?"(Oslon, & Fazio, 2001 p 416).

Despite the procedure that Oslon, & Fazio, (2001) use for the research method, the authors do not discuss the strategy to protect the participants. In an experimental research, a researcher is required to provide an elaborate procedure that should be used in protecting the participants from a negative research outcome. Nieswiadomy (2008) argues that a researcher is require to stipulate the ethical procedure that ought to be used to complete a research. Part of the ethical procedures is to request the participants signing a consent form assuring them that the experiment is for a research purpose only and their personal information will not be exposed to a third party.(Polit, & Beck, 2013). Moreover, the authors only use the female undergraduates as the participants for the Experiment 1 and Experiment 2. The authors ought to have selected male and female participants for the experiments to deliver more reliable and valid research findings. Moreover, the demographic data of the participants were not mentioned in the article.

However, the authors use the quantitative technique for the data analysis. "The purpose of data analysis, regardless of the type of data or underlying research tradition, is to organize, provide structure to, and elicit meaning from the data." (Polit, & Beck, 2013 p 463). The data analysis is carried out to clean the data and summarize the data in a manageable form to enhance research validity and credibility.

The authors present the results of the Experiment 1 by showing the findings of the Conditioning effect revealing the rating between positive CS and negative CS. The higher number refers a greater conditioning. The mean score is 0.64 where the standard deviation is 2.05. The ANOVA was also used to measure the Awareness test where the outcome of the pairing in the research of the ANOVA test is (F < 1). However, the findings show that an attitudinal conditioning can be revealed from both the explicit measure and implicit measure in the experiments.