Little Albert Study
Psychology: AQA A Level, topic 5.1.3
Watson and Rayner (1920) — Little Albert study
Watson & Rayner (1920) applied the principles of classical conditioning to humans. They succeeded in inducing a fear of white rats (phobia) in an 11-month-old child.
Little Albert's fear of noise
- Watson & Rayner discovered that ‘Little Albert’, in common with most small children, displayed a fear response when he heard a loud noise. They made a loud noise by hitting a steel bar with a hammer behind him.
- This loud noise was the UCS in the experiment and fear was the UCR.
Fear of white things
- Originally, Albert showed no fear of the white rat (CS) and played quite happily with it. However, after several pairing of the loud noise (UCS) and the white rat (CS), he displayed fear (UCR) in response to just the white rat.
- Little Albert had learnt to fear and avoid white rats without the loud noise being present. He had been conditioned to associate white rats with fear. But Little Albert generalised this fear to other white fluffy things including Dr Watson wearing a white beard!
Test yourself on Little Albert Study
Which researchers induced a fear of white rats into 'Little Albert'?