Psychology article summary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Psychology article summary - Essay Example This is an important source of physiological stress for them because of the risk for dehydration. So the two experiments here rely on the toads sensitivity for detecting the composition of fluids around him and the stress it feels when conditions arent suitable for it- which leads to changes in both his heart rate and in its attempts to avoid these conditions and run away. Researchers therefore used an amount of sodium chloride which neither caused the toads to gain weight or loss weight, to create a "neutral" situation and then test their responses. A pilot experiment showed an increase in the heart rate of toads, which is important to set off their attempts to flee the environment. It used two solutions, one was good for the toads and the other wasnt. This technique was also good to evaluate the functional significance of conditioning (like in Pavlovs experiment with the dogs) in the context of water balance. During the experiment, researchers put the toads in Plexiglas cages, added water, changed the chemical composition of the water and lastly drained the tank. Toads were either put with another toad in the tank or placed there alone. There were mostly insignificant differences between the groups, but one significant find was that the toads placed with another toad in a tank learned to expect the reinforcement better. The toads showed learning abilities, as they anticipated the changes in water composition after it was done to them several times. Their anticipation could be witnessed by their increased heart rate. They managed to avoid losing weight almost as well as the toads never exposed to the different solution in the water. This experiment added another feature- an added compartment in the Plexiglas tank in which there was no altered solution. The toads could escape there to avoid being in contact with the solution. The results showed that all toads showed a consistent weight loss and did learn to avoid being in