Little Albert

Question 1

Who was the study carried out by?

Answer 1

Watson and raynor

Question 2

What was the aim?

Answer 2

to demonstrate that the principles of classical conditioning can be used to explain how humans acquire phonic behaviours and to show that a fear response can be created within a young child to a stimuli which does not naturally produce this response

Question 3

What type of study was it?

Answer 3

Case study even though the procedure was a lab experiment

Question 4

sample?

Answer 4

Health male infant whose mother worked at the hospital that Watson and Raynor were at

Question 5

What were the 3 phases?

Answer 5

• Pre-conditioning testing
• Conditioning trials
• post conditioning test

Question 6

What happened in the pre-conditioning testing stage?

Answer 6

• when little albert was 9months old his response to numerous stimuli were recorded which included exposure to a white rat and the noise of a steel bar being stuck by a hammer behind his head which he showed a fear response to
• It was a UCS as no learning was requires
• Done to establish a clear starting point

Question 7

What happened in the conditioning trails stage?

Answer 7

• When albert was 11 months old he was given the white rat to play with but when he reached for the rat the steel bar was struck behind him
• process was repeated 5 times in the next week and twice more 17 days later
• This was the conditioning process

Question 8

What happened in the post-conditioning test stage?

Answer 8

the effects were tested by showing albert the rat alone and monitoring his reaction

Question 9

results before conditioning ?

Answer 9

• albert only showed fear response to the load noise created by striking the steel bar with a hammer behind his head
• He showed no fear to other stimuli like the white rat

Question 10

Results after 1st trial?

Answer 10

albert showed some distress

Question 11

Result’s after 2nd trail?

Answer 11

He was suspicious of the rat

Question 12

Results after 3rd trial?

Answer 12

he leaned away from the rat and when the rat was put next to him he began to cry

Question 13

What did he generalise?

Answer 13

Albert developed a phobia of other white fluffy objects such as his mums coat and even Santa clauses beard

Question 14

What did they conclude?

Answer 14

it is possible to produce a fear response in a human using the process of classical conditioning