Acquisition by classical conditioning

• Classical conditioning - Involves learning to associate something of which we initially have no fear of (a neutral stimulus) with something that already triggers a response (unconditioned stimulus)
• 'Little Albert' Study (1920):

  Watson and Rayner created a phobia of white rats in a 9 month old baby
• 'Little Albert' Study:

  1. Whenever the rat was presented to Albert the researchers made a loud, frightening noise by banging an iron bar close to Albert's ear
  2. This noise (UCS) creates an UCR of fear
  3. When the rat (NS) and UCS are encountered close together in time, the NS becomes associated with the UCS and now both produce the fear response
  4. Rat is now a learned/ Conditioned Stimulus that produces a Conditioned Response