CONDITIONED EMOTIONAL REACTIONSWatson & Rayner, 1920

AIMS

1. To investigate whether it is possible to condition a fear of an animal in a baby

2. To see whether that fear would be transferred to other animals and objects

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AIMS

3. To investigate the effect of time on such conditioned emotional responses

4. If the responses do not extinguish themselves, then to investigate what laboratory methods can be devised for their removal

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PARTICIPANT

Little Albert aged 9 months - 1 year 21 days

Mother a wet nurse at the Harriet Lane Home

for Invalid Children

This was where Albert had been raised

Albert ‘normal’

Stolid and unemotional

“No one had ever seen him in a state of fear

or rage.”

“The infant practically never cried.”

“We felt we could do him relatively

little harm by carrying out

experiments such as those outlined

below...”

PROCEDURE

Method Single case study conducted under

laboratory conditions Using observational techniques to record

data

PROCEDURE

Approx 9 months Little Albert was shown a series of stimuli

White rat Rabbit Dog Monkey Masks Cotton wool Burning newspapers

At NO time did Little Albert show any fear

Neutral stimuli

PROCEDURE

8 months & 26 days1. A steel bar was struck with a sharp blow

behind Albert’s head Albert showed ‘startled reaction’

2. The steel bar was struck again Albert again showed a ‘startled reaction &

his lips puckered and trembled

3. The steel bar was struck for the third time Albert started crying Unconditioned

response

Unconditioned stimulus

PROCEDURE

Establishment of conditioned emotional responses 11 months and three days A white rat was taken from a basket

and presented to Albert Just as he reached for the rat the steel

bar was struck behind his head Little Albert showed a fear reaction by

jumping violently and falling forward

PROCEDURE

11 months 10 days 1. The rat was presented without the steel

bar and Albert was hesitant to touch the animal

This shows the procedure that was performed the previous week had had some effect...

Then the experimental procedure began again...

2. The rat and steel bar were presented together

Little Albert ‘started’ and fell over

PROCEDURE

3. Joint stimulation again. Albert fell over again and turn away from the rat

4. Joint stimulation – same reaction 5. Rat presented alone – Albert whimpers and

withdraws his body 6. Joint stimulation. Albert fell over again and

started to whimper 7. Joint stimulation. Albert started violently

and cried!

PROCEDURE

8. Rat presented alone – Albert cries and crawls away so quickly that he almost falls off the table

Conditioned emotional responseConditioned stimulus

It takes seven joint stimulation trials in all to make Little

Albert cry and establish the fear response!

PROCEDURE TESTING AIM 2 – WILL ALBERT'S FEAR RESPONSE GENERALISE TO OTHER OBJECTS?

11 months 15 days 1. Albert is shown the rat again and shows a

fear response 2. Albert is then shown a rabbit. He show a

fear response by whimpering then bursting into tears and buried his head in the mattress then crawled off crying

PROCEDURE

Little Albert shows a similar fear response to: Fur coat Cotton wool Santa mask A dog

PROCEDURE TESTING AIM 3 – THE EFFECT OF TIME ON CONDITIONED EMOTIONAL RESPONSES

No further conditioning experimentation was conducted on Little Albert for 31 days

One Year 21 days Little Albert was presented with

The Santa mask The Fur Coat The Rat The Dog

He showed a fear response to all of them

“These experiments seem to show

conclusively that directly conditioned emotional responses

as well as those conditioned by

transfer, persist”

“Our view is that these responses in the home environment are likely to persist indefinitely”