Little Albert

PROCEDURE (METHOD): The experimenters chose ‘Albert B’ aged 9 months as their participant. Effectively Albert had been reared from birth in a hospital environment - his mother being a wet nurse at the Harriet Lane Home for Invalid Children. The infant was healthy, well-developed, stolid and unemotional, so Watson & Rayner thought they could do him “relatively little harm”. They reasoned he would have frightening experiences at nursery, anyway. The study took place at John Hopkins University.

Before the commencement of the experiment, Albert was given a battery of baseline emotional tests; the infant was exposed, briefly and for the first time, to a white rat, a rabbit, a dog, a monkey, masks with and without hair, cotton wool, burning newspapers, etc. During the baseline, Little Albert showed no fear toward any of these items. Albert’s mother and some of the hospital staff witnessed some of these events - which Watson had filmed.

The experimenters also banged a hammer against a suspended steel bar to make a loud noise. Albert reacted fearfully - his lips puckered and trembled and he suddenly began crying.

Watson & Rayner did not begin to condition Albert until approximately two months later, when he was just over 11 months old. The experiment began by placing Albert on a mattress on a table in the middle of a room. A white laboratory rat was placed near Albert and he was allowed to play with it. At this point, the child showed no fear of the rat. He began to reach out to the rat and groan as it roamed around him. In later trials, Watson & Rayner had the suspended steel bar with a hammer behind Albert's back by striking the suspended steel bar with a hammer when the baby touched the rat. Not surprisingly in these occasions, Little Albert cried and showed fear as he heard the noise. After seven such pairings of the two stimuli, Albert was again presented with only the rat. Now, however, he became very distressed as the rat appeared in the room. He cried, turned away from the rat, and tried to move away.

Albert was allowed to play with blocks in between the trials; he appeared to have no problem playing happily with the blocks.

5 days after the first exposure to the rat and loud noise together, Watson & Rayner concluded that the conditioned response was weakening and, therefore, renewed it. They did the same again on the 20th day.

17 days after the original pairing of the stimuli, Watson took a (non-white) rabbit into the room: Albert became distressed. He showed similar reactions when presented with a furry dog, a seal-skin coat, and even when Watson appeared in front of him wearing a Santa Claus mask with white cotton balls as his beard. (However, Albert did not fear everything with hair.)

In the very last stages, the experiment was transferred to a lecture room and conducted in the presence of 4 people. This was to study the effects of different surroundings.

After 31 days of the experiment, Albert was taken from the hospital by his mother. Watson & Rayner appeared baffled by her rash action. A number of commentators have suggested that the mother was never allowed fully-informed consent; once she discovered what was taking place, she became angry and removed her son.

Watson & Rayner claimed they had planned to attempt to desensitise Albert and eliminate his fearful reactions (pair the white rat with warm milk which babies love) - but the infant’s abrupt removal by his mother destroyed the opportunity.