Watson and Rayner

• What were Little Alberts' reactions in Controlled Observation 1?

  • 1st joint stimulation of rat & bar: Albert jumped violently --> fell forward --> buried face in mattress

  
  

  • 2nd joint stimulation of rat & bar: Albert jumped violently --> fell forward --> began to whimper
• What were Little Alberts' reactions in Controlled Observation 2?

  • Rat alone: Albert reached for it tentatively --> when rat touched his hand, he withdrew it

  
  

  • Blocks: Played with them, picked them up and dropped them

  
  

  • Joint stimulation (rat): fell over to his right side; didn't cry

  
  

  • Rat alone: whimpered & withdrew his body

  
  

  • Joint stimulation (rat): started violently and cried; didn't fall over

  
  

  • Rat alone: cried, turned away sharply, fell over and began to crawl away
• What were Little Alberts' reactions in Controlled Observation 3?


  • Blocks: Played happily with them, smiling and gurgling

  
  

  • Rat alone: whimpered, turned his head away, got onto all fours and scurried away rapidly

  
  

  • Rabbit alone: Leaned away from animal, whimpered, burst into tears, crawled away

  
  

  • Dog alone: Shrank back as dog came nearer, turned his head away, began to cry

  
  

  • Fur coat: Withdrew, began to cry, tried to crawl away

  
  

  • Cotton wool: Kicked it away --> played with paper, avoided contact with wool
• What were Little Alberts' reactions in Controlled Observation 4?

  • Blocks: played with them as usual

  
  

  • Rat alone: withdrew his body, followed rat with his eyes, crawled away

  
  

  • Rabbit alone: Leaned to the side, whimpered, did not cry

  
  

  • Joint stimulations (all animals): whimpered, fell over
• What were Little Alberts' reactions in Controlled Observation 4 (change of location)?

  • Rat alone: held up his hands, no sudden fear reaction

  
  

  • Rabbit alone: whimpered, arms held high

  
  

  • Dog's bark: Fell, broke into a wail
• What were Little Alberts' reactions in Controlled Observation 5?

  • Santa mask: withdrew, whimpered, cried

  
  

  • Fur coat: wrinkled his nose and withdrew his hands --> when touched the coat by accident he cried

  
  

  • Blocks: played with them as usual

  
  

  • Rat: allowed rat to crawl towards him, watching intently --> when rat touched his hand, he withdrew immediately but did not cry

  
  

  • Rabbit: showed no reaction at first but pulled away as it came nearer, wailing

  
  

  • Dog: cried, putting his hands all over his face
• (P) What were Watson and Rayner's procedures in Controlled Observation 1?

  • White rat is presented to Albert
  • Albert reaches out to the rat --> metal bar is struck behind him (making a loud noise)
  • Hand about to touch the rat again --> bar was struck again
  • No further tests were given for 1 week
• (P)What were Watson and Rayner's procedures in Controlled Observation 2?

  • Rat presented alone
  • Rat placed nearer to Albert
  • Blocks were given to play with
  • 3 joint stimulations of rat and bar
  • Rat presented alone
  • 2 joint stimulations of rat and bar
  • Rat presented alone
• What were Watson and Rayner's procedures in Controlled Observation 3?

  • 3 alternate presentations of rat and blocks alone
  • Rabbit and dog presented alone with blocks in between
  • Fur coat and cotton wool presented alone
  • Watson put his hair in front of Albert
  • Santa Claus mask alone
• What were Watson and Rayner's procedures in Controlled Observation 4?

  • Blocks presented
  • Rat alone
  • Joint stimulation of rat and bar
  • Rat alone twice
  • Rabbit alone
  • Blocks presented
  • Repeat joint presentations
  • Rabbit alone, then joint, then alone twice
  • Dog alone, then jointly
  • Blocks presented
• What were Watson and Rayner's procedures in Controlled Observation 4 (change of location)?

  Albert moved to a well-lit lecture room, four people were present:

  • Presented with rat, rabbit and dog alone
  • Rat presented alone
  • Joint stimulation of rat and sound
  • Rat presented alone
  • Rat , rabbit and dog presented alone, with blocks between each one
• What were Watson and Rayner's procedures in Controlled Observation 5?

  • Santa Claus mask presented
  • Fur coat laid on Albert's lap
  • Fur coat again, 1 minute later
  • Blocks presented
  • Rat alone, then placed on his arm, then crawled on his chest
  • Blocks presented
  • Rabbit placed in his lap, hand placed on the rabbit and again on his lap
  • Dog, which was pushed closer to him
• In a nutshell, what happened in Watson and Rayner's study?

  • Watson and Rayner aimed to instil a phobia in a young child using classical conditioning
  • The child, referred to as Little Albert, was used in 4 different controlled observations, which aimed to answer 4 questions about conditioning emotional responses
• What were the aims of the research?

  • Can a fear of a previously neutral stimulus be conditioned by presenting with an established negative stimulus?
  • Could the conditioned response be transferred to other animals or objects?
  • Does this conditioned response change over time?
  • How might these emotional responses be removed if they do not die out?
• What is stimulus generalisation? 

  The same response is caused or elicited by stimuli that are similar
• What is stimulus discrimination?

  The response only occurs to a very narrow range of specific stimuli
• What is a conclusion?

  Evaluation of if the study aims were met, and what we have learnt from it.
• What are ethical implications?

  Morals, PC DRIP, cost vs benefit
• What are social implications?


  How the study could impact wider society
• (C) Can a fear of a previously neutral stimulus be conditioned by presenting with an established negative stimulus?

  Yes:

  • Albert tested at 9 months --> no signs of fear to any stimuli
  • After conditioning --> fear responses were seen
  • The study shows conclusively that directly conditioned responses do occur where there was previously no response
• (C) Could the conditioned response be transferred to other animals or objects?

  Yes:

  • The conditioned response was transferred to other objects and in a different location
  • Stimulus generalisation: fear response to rat was generalised to rabbit, dog, and fur coat
• (C) Does this conditioned response change over time?

  Yes and no:

  • The conditioned response continued after 1 week
  • A month later --> responses still persisted and transferred to other stimuli, but Albert's response was less intense
  • Response will persist & modify his personality throughout his life
• (C) How might these emotional responses be removed if they do not die out?

  • The opportunity to remove the conditioned response was denied (Albert left the hospital).
  • However, it is likely that responses persist indefinitely
  • If they had the opportunity,W&R would have attempted to recondition Albert by feeding him candy when the animal was shown
• How is the methodology evaluated?

  Reliability:

  • Internal
  • External
  • Inter-Rater

  Validity:

  • Internal
  • External (population)
  • External (ecological)
• (M) What were the internal reliability strengths in the W&R study?

  Standardised procedure:

  • Each observation followed a set structure, recorded in detail (order in which stimuli was introduced), control condition (building blocks),consistency across each observation
• (M) What were the external reliability weaknesses in the W&R study?

  • Could not be replicated due to ethical issues
  • No test-retest as Albert was taken from the hospital so no observations could be repeated
• (M) What were the inter-rater reliability strengths in the W&R study?

  • Watson and Rayner observed together and agreed on observations
  • 4 people in the room after location change
  • Films of observations were used to get confirmation of their observations by others
• (M) What were the internal validity strengths in the W&R study?

  • Standardised procedure= high control
  • Use of control condition (building blocks)
  • Emotional tests were used

  Allows confident conclusions to be drawn on conditioning, leading to fear as there is a limited effect on DV's
• (M) What were the internal validity weaknesses in the W&R study?

  Observer bias:

  • Watson and Rayner could have interpreted Albert's behaviour as a fear response to support hypothesis
• (M) What were the external (population) validity weaknesses in the W&R study?

  Study done on 1 participant:

  • Cannot assume other people would learn fear through conditioning in the same way
  • Lacks population validity
• (M) What were the external (ecological) validity weaknesses in the W&R study?

  Contrived environment:

  • Albert introduced to stimuli by Watson and Rayner, not in a natural way
  • May be more efficient to 'learn' behaviour in real life
  • Lacks ecological validity
• What were the ethical issues/strengths present in the W&R study?

  • Informed consent
  • Confidentiality
  • Protection from harm
  • Right to withdraw
• (E) Was there informed consent in the W&R study?

  No:

  
  

  Mother was not aware of the test under-taken on Albert --> did not give fully informed consent
• (E) Was there confidentiality in the W&R study?

  Not really:

  • Albert was filmed without awareness (too young to know)
  • Albert known as 'Albert B.' in the study -> no one sure of his true identity, but could have used a code/number to really hide his identity
• (E) Was there protection from harm in the W&R study?

  No:

  • Conditioned a baby to fear stimuli --> not protected from harm
  • Never counter-conditioned fear --> could have affected Albert beyond the study

  Yes:

  • Watson and Rayner stated: 'Such attachment would arise as soon as the child left the nursery for the rough & tumble of the home --> so, no harm beyond day to day life'
• (E) Was there the right to withdraw in the W&R study?

  No:

  • Albert tried to crawl away --> too young to verbally express his right to withdraw, but did his behaviour suggest he wanted to leave?

  Yes:

  • Albert's mum withdrawn him from the study
• What are the social implications of the W&R study?

  • Advertising
  • Mental Health treatment
  • Education
• (S) How did the W&R study impact advertising?

  Advertising that uses music is taking advantage of classical conditioning:

  • Music that is happy and repetitive helps consumers to feel happy when they hear it
  • Consumers then associate feelings of happiness with the product, thus are more likely to buy the product
• (S) How did the W&R study impact Mental Health treatment?

  • Research suggests Systematic Desensitisation to be the most effective therapy for phobias
  • SD is based on Watson's principles of counter-conditioning --> phobic response becomes associated with relaxation (reciprocal inhibition) so the original response is counter-conditioned
• (S) How did the W&R study impact education?

  Classical conditioning techniques can be used to improve learning in the classroom:

  • Le Francois --> by maximising pleasant stimuli in the classroom (e.g. wall displays), and minimising negative stimuli, students can create positive associations with their environment,which leads leads to positive feelings, which leads to improved academic performance