Choose the correct answer from the four options given below:
Which of the following is not a natural reflex action?
Topic: Conditioned reflex
Try it
Pick an option and check your answer. The full worked answer is below either way.
Answer
(c) Salivation at the sight of food.
READ THE WORD "NOT" — you are looking for the one that is NOT natural.
SALIVATION AT THE SIGHT OF FOOD is a CONDITIONED (acquired) reflex. It is LEARNT by repeated association: a baby does not salivate at the sight of a dish it has never eaten. Salivation at the TASTE of food would be natural; at the SIGHT of it, it is learnt.
The other three are NATURAL (unconditioned) reflexes — inborn and present from birth in everyone: the knee-jerk, blinking in strong light, and sneezing at an irritant.
PAVLOV’S EXPERIMENT is the classic demonstration of the conditioned kind: dogs given food whenever a bell rang eventually salivated at the bell alone.
Note that conditioned reflexes involve the CEREBRUM, which forms the new association, whereas natural reflexes need only the spinal cord.
Salivation at the sight of food.