classical study

• Watson and Reyner's aim was to investigate if a human child could learn to be afraid of a previously neutral stimulus and then generlised to similar objects.
• The independent variable is the loud noise, which Watson and Rayner used as an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) that would cause fear in Little Albert
• The dependent variable is whether or not little albert showed signs of fear when presented with the rat
• Watson and Reyner's procedure included A white laboratory rat was placed near Albert and he was allowed to play with it. At this point, Watson and Rayner made a loud sound behind Albert's back by striking a suspended steel bar with a hammer each time the baby touched the rat. Albert responded to the noise by crying and showing fear. This was repeated.
• After several trials, Albert began to show fear at just seeing the rat without any accompanying noise. The researchers had conditioned him to associate the rat with the loud noise and therefore feel scared whenever he saw it.
• Generalisation occurred when Albert became frightened of other furry things such as a Santa Claus mask and a rabbit.
• The result of W+R was that little albert developed a phobia of an object that wasn't previously feared
• W+R concluded that anyone can be classically conditioned to develop a fear of a previously unfeared object