Little A Man PowerPoint

The experiment was conducted  at Johns Hopkins University in 1920 by Watson and his assistant Rosalie Rayner.

The “Little Albert” experiment conducted by John B. Watson was an experiment that showed empirical evidence of what is called classical conditioning.

Watson used this experiment in particular to find evidence classical conditioning in humans.

As this study helped in the study of classical conditioning, it was also said to be an example of stimulus generalization.

The purpose of the experiment was to help Watson support his idea that emotional responses could be conditioned, or learned.

The experimenter came to believe that the fear was innate or it was due to an unconditioned response.

Watson also believed that he could condition a child to fear another stimulus which would normally not be feared by a child; all following the principles of classical conditioning.

Albert was chosen from a hospital for this experiment at the age of almost nine months. He was the son of a nurse of the Phipps Clinic at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, where Watson and Rayner were conducting the experiment.

Before Watson could start the experiment he had Albert undergo several emotional tests. Albert 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. After this exposure, Albert showed no fear to any of these objects.

Little Albert was not being conditioned until approximately two months later, by the time Albert was 11 months old. It all began by placing Little Albert on a mattress on a table that was set in the middle of the room. Then, a white laboratory rat was placed near him and Albert was given the chance to play with it, letting Watson know that Albert had no fear towards the rat.

In the next trials, Watson and his assistant made a loud sound behind the infant by striking a steel bar with a hammer. This was done when the baby touched the rat. In these occasions, Little Albert showed fear as he heard the noise, causing  him to cry.

After the pairing of the sound and the rat, Albert was then conditioned to fear the rat. As the rat was presented later, Albert felt fear towards it. He cried, and tried to avoid the rat, moving from where he was.  It was then proven, that Albert had associated the white rat with the loud noise, which then caused Albert to cry and fear the rat.

The “Little Albert” experiment led to the following series of results:

•1. Introduction of a loud sound (unconditioned stimulus) resulted in fear (unconditioned response), a natural response.

•2. Introduction of a rat (neutral stimulus) paired with the loud sound (unconditioned stimulus) resulted in fear (unconditioned response).

•3. Successive introductions of a rat (conditioned stimulus) resulted in fear (conditioned response). This is when learning occurs.

What was challenging about this experiment was that Little Albert seemed to generalize his response so that when Watson sent a (non-white) rabbit into the room seventeen days after the original experiment, Albert also 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, although Albert did not fear everything with hair.