little albert study

• who conducted it

  watson and rayner
• when was it

  1920
• what were the aims

  wanted to demonstrate that an irrational fear could be induced by classical conditioning/ association
• procedure


  they used a baby boy, nicknamed little albert

  -at 9 months showed no fear of a laboratory white rat

  
  

  -at 11 months old, whenever the rat was placed in his lap a loud noise was made by banging together two steel bars behind his back

  -this was done 7 times

  
  

  the loud noise = an unconditioned stimulus

  alberts responce to the noise (crying) = unconditioned responce

  before conditioning, the rat = neutral stimulus

  
  

  after only the third trial, albert showed fear whenever he saw the rat
• conclusions


  classical conditioning had occured

  -little albert was now afraid of the rat because he associated it with the loud noise

  
  

  stimulus generalization had also occured

  -albert feared not only the white rat but other similar looking objects including a fur coat and a man in a santa beard
• evaluation


  watson + rayner did not come up with a specific set of guide-lines to measure alberts responce, they relied on their own subjective opinions on what his responces were

  
  

  ethical issues

  -little albert was not protected from harm, he left the study with a previously non existant fear