Little Albert: Classical Conditioning

Little Albert an 11 month old boy was chosen as the participant. Watson identified that a white rat did not provoke any fear response in Albert, so it was a neutral stimulus. Little Albert was then exposed to the white rat, but every time he reached out to touch it Watson would make a loud noise. Albert would get frightened and start to cry. After repeating this several times, Albert started getting frightened just by seeing the rat. Just like the bell in Pavlov's experiment, the white rat had become a conditioned stimulus to Albert. Watson therefore concluded that even complex behaviour such as fear was a learned response.

The actual practise of conditioning only started when Albert was 11 months old. The first step Watson and Raymer took towards conditioning Little Albert, was paring the loud noise, unconditioned stimulus, with the white rat, conditioned stimulus. The responses were fear of the

Almost all psychology students learn at some point that a Watson and Rayner tried to condition an infant (11 months) called “Albert B” to fear a white lab rat. They realized that the infants fear was transferred to other furry like objects like rabbits and dogs, and even a Santa Claus mask. (Fridlund, Alan J)

Albert did what any other child would do and began to cry after hearing the loud noise. After repeatedly pairing the white rat with the loud noise, Albert began to cry simply after seeing rabbit. This experiment was repeated over about two

Psychology holds five core concepts; biological, cognitive, psychoanalytical, learning, and sociocultural perspectives. So far, we as students, have delved our hands into cognitive and biological aspects referencing several case studies and experiments to aid our research. We have gone over the nature vs. nurture debate and even continued our studies through learning social observation. These core concepts are implemented throughout the “Little Albert” behavioral study conducted by John B. Watson, thus assisting in providing knowledge on how emotional conditioning works.

The experiment, “Conditioned Emotional Reactions”, tests the concept of conditioned fear. Albert, the only subject in this case study, was raised in a hospital environment as a result of his mother being a wet nurse for the Harriet Lane Home for Invalid Children. Albert was known for his lack of expressed anger or fear, and was therefore chosen for this case study at the age of eight months and twenty six days. For the experiments run, the dependent variable is Albert’s reaction to the given independent variables, which are the the objects/animals presented. The first test run was a simple loud striking sound that was created behind Albert, which resulted in the first emotional response, which consisted of tears. After these results were recorded, it was decided that the next series of tests were to be run at the age of eleven months and three days. The first experiment to test conditioned fear put Albert in a room with a white rat, and once Albert went to reach for the rat, the loud unpleasant sound was made. As a result, the fear associated with the sound, was associated with the rat. The following experiment tested

In Watson’s experiment, he and his colleague, Rosalie Rayner, subjected an 11 month old child to a “loud, scary noise” whenever the child viewed a white rat (Baird 2011). The child eventually learned to associate the rat with the noise and would cry whenever presented with the rat. To those who study behaviorism, this study proves that behavior in humans can be altered through reinforcement (Baird 2011).

The “Little Albert” experiment was a study that depicted clear evidence of classical conditioning and stimulus generalization. Classical conditioning refers to learning procedure in which a biologically potent stimulus is paired with a previously neutral stimulus.(e.g. A dog hears a bell every time before he is fed, and after repeating this multiple times, the dog is conditioned to salivate at the sound of the bell.) Stimulus generalization refers to the reaction one might have to other objects similar in shape, color, size, etc, after a traumatic or very positive experience. (e.g. Someone gets sick after eating an orange and then might feel uncomfortable eating other orange foods.) The examination of these factors, however, left Little

Born on January 9, 1878 in Greenville, North Carolina, John Broadus Watson was son to a poor family. His mother was very religions, and his father broke many rules of marriage by drinking and having affairs. John went to the University of Chicago to receive a masters degree, where he met his first wife, Mary Ikes, with whom he would have two children. However, John has the same habits as his father, and later was divorced by Mary. He would next meet and later marry Rosalie Rayner, one of his graduate students. Together, John and Rosalie would go on the perform the “Little Albert” experiment.

Watson's claims about the role of conditioning in behavioral development were exaggerated. He created a mountain of speculation out of a molehill of evidence. Watson was an outstanding popularizer and advocate for his point of view. This is illustrated most clearly in his celebrated dictum: "Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select—doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant chief, and yes, even beggar-man thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors" (Behaviorism, p. 104). The confidence that Watson expresses in the limitless malleability of human behavior has very little to do with the results of his research and has a great deal to do with the democratic spirit, and affluence of the America in which he lived. In fact, given that no one was likely to volunteer their well-formed healthy infant for Watson's experiment, his statement reduces to a purely rhetorical gesture that has nothing to do with science as such.

The experiment that was performed on Little Albert was conducted to see if a child is born with fear or if it developed through

In the experiment, Little Albert was presented with various animals including a rabbit, a monkey, and a white rat as well as other stimuli such as masks and burning newspapers. Initially, Albert showed no fear to any of the stimulus. However, the next time Albert was presented the white rat Watson made a loud noise by hitting a metal pipe with a hammer, this

At the start of the experiment the boy loved animals but throughout the course of the study that quickly faded the goal of the study was to demonstrate that classical conditioning could be applied to condition the emotional response of fear. In the process Watson failed to protect Albert from psychological harm as the study induced a state of fear and most importantly these studies were conducted without the permission of Albert’s parent/guardian which raises “red flags” immediately about the experiment.

The Little Albert Experiment was one of the most influential experiments conducted by the father of behaviorism John B. Waston and his student Rosalie Rayner in 1920. Previously, Russian Psychologist Ivan Pavlov demonstrated classical conditioning in his experiments with the dog. Based on the works of Pavlov, Dr. Waston extended the principle and first applied on human in his experiment with an 9-month-old infant, named Albert. At the beginning, little Albert showed no natural fear of furry objects when Dr. Waston introduced him fire, a monkey, a dog, a rabbit, and a white rat. Then, Dr. Watson made a loud noise by striking a metal bar with a hammer, every time

Classical conditioning is identified as the type of learning where the nature of the research conditions a fear response to the subject being experimented on. An implication of the research for human behavior involving conditioned fear response would describe how a child might be afraid of storms because of the partnership between the storm and the sound of the loud thunder. This being said, John B. Watson wanted to further explain this reasoning of classical conditioning through his own experiment that many people call The “Little