Watson and Rayner Study

Question 1

What type of study was it?

Answer 1

A controlled study, conducted in a lab

Question 2

Who was the father of behaviourism?

Answer 2

John B. Watson

Question 3

What was Watson’s work concerned with?

Answer 3

classical conditioning

Question 4

What is the methodology?

Answer 4

Involves one participant (Little Albert). It was an investigation to determine the effects of certain stimuli. They called it an experiment but the word Is now more restrictive. It was conducted in a well-lit dark room. Albert was placed on a mattress that was on top of a table. This is a controlled observation.

Question 5

How did they record Albert’s responses?

Answer 5

With a motion picture camera.

Question 6

What did they use to test Albert’s emotion responses?

Answer 6

White rat, rabbit, dog, monkey, masks, cotton wool and burning newspaper.

Question 7

What was the unconditioned stimulus?

Answer 7

a loud noise, made by striking a hammer upon a suspended steel bar.

Question 8

What was session 1 in procedures?

Answer 8

Establishing a conditioned emotional response: Albert was 11 months and 3 days when they brought him to the lab again. A white rat was shown to him and he went to reach for it. The bar was then struck.

Question 9

What was session 2?

Answer 9

Testing the conditioned emotional response: A week later Albert returned. He was shown the rat with no sound. Albert was exposed 5 times to the joint stimulation.

Question 10

What was session 3?

Answer 10

Generalisation. At 11 months and 5 day Albert returned.. They wanted to see now whether the experiment had been generalised to ‘furry’ objects.

Question 11

What was session 4?

Answer 11

They changed the location. At 11 months and 20 days they freshened up Albert’s emotional response using joint stimulation. The new environment was a well lit lecture room with 4 people present. He was placed on the table in the centre of the room.

Question 12

What was session 5?

Answer 12

At 12 months and 21 days, Albert was tested one last time. It included a Santa mask, rat, building blocks.

Question 13

For findings, what were the emotional tests?

Answer 13

Albert showed no fear to the objects before conditioning. The mother stated they’d never seen Albert in a state of fear and never cried.

Question 14

What happened to Albert when they struck the bar behind his head for the first time?

Answer 14

Started violently, breathing was checked and his arms were raised. On the second time, he did the same thing and his lips began to pucker and tremble. On the third time, Albert broke into tears.

Question 15

What happened in session 1 when they established emotional response?

Answer 15

Albert was tested again with a white rat. When the bar was struck he jumped and he fell forward burying his head on the table. Again they struck the bar and he fell forward while whimpering.

Question 16

What happened in session 2 when they tested the conditioned emotional response?

Answer 16

A week later Albert showed a new response to the rat. This time he just stared at the rat. The rat got placed nearer to him and he reached out carefully for the rat but withdraw his hand when the rat started to nuzzle his hand. They tested his behaviour with letting him play with some blocks, it showed us that his cautious behaviour was just towards the rat. After further ‘joint stimulation’ pairing the rat with the loud noise, Albert became more distressed. Again he was shown the rat, and he began to cry and crawl away.

Question 17

What happened in session 3 with generalisation?

Answer 17

Albert played happily with the blocks but when shown the rat he immediately responded with fear. His response to the rabbit was just as severe as it was to the rat. He burst into tears and crawled away. The dog or the fur coat did not have the same reaction.

Question 18

What happened in session 4 with changing the environment?

Answer 18

His responses to the animals were less extreme in the new environment. After ‘freshening up’ the conditioned fear the conditioned response was stronger.

Question 19

What happened in session 5 with the effect of time?

Answer 19

Albert responded to the test objects in a different way than the control objects (the blocks). Hi reaction to the furry objects were not as extreme as previously but he clearly avoided them and whimpered. He would sometimes cry.

Question 20

What was the conclusion?

Answer 20

It demonstrated the ease with which a fear response can be created. just two ‘joint stimulations’ in the first week were sufficient to create a conditioned emotional response. Seven ‘joint stimulations’ were given to bring about the the complete reaction. The experiment can be generalised. They suggest it is probable that many phobias are acquired in this way. They suspected that the persistence of early conditioned responses would only be found in persons who are ‘constitutionally inferior’.

Question 21

What does Freudian think about it?

Answer 21

Albert was seen to suck his thumb, Freud believed it was for sexual stimulation. Watson/Raynor said it was compensation to block fear. They also provide a futuristic look when Albert would seek help for his furry object fear. A therapist would then assume that his fear developed from playing with a pubic hair of his mothers and got scolded for it.