Module 3
The case of Little Albert
Albert was an 11 month old infant at the time of his conditioning. At the start of the experiment, Albert was tested to determine if he had any fear for live animals, a human mask, or cotton. Upon initial presentation, none of these stimuli elicited a response (neutral stimuli).
In the second step of the experiment, Albert was shown a white rat. As he looked at the rat, a research assistant standing behind Albert hit a steel bar with a hammer, creating a loud and startling noise. During the first trial, Albert was reported to have jumped. Such a jump is an expected startle reaction caused by an involuntary response of the autonomic nervous system. During the second trial, Albert is reported to have cried.The research continued, showing Albert the rat and striking the metal bar. By the 8th trial, Albert is reported to have cried and attempted to crawl away -- even before the noise of the hammer striking the bar. Clearly at this point, Albert has been conditioned. The previously neutral stimuli of the rat has been paired with the startle reflex, and can now elicit the response that previously had been elicited by the loud noise.
Continuing the research to study generalization, Albert was brought back to the laboratory after 5 days. At this point in time, he began crying when he was shown a rabbit. This represents response generalization as the rabbit was never directly paired with the loud noise, but now acts as a conditioned stimulus. Over some period of time, the response generalizes further to dogs and fur coats. However, as is typical, the response to dogs and fur coats is not as strong as the response to a rat or even a rabbit. This is consistent with findings that amplitude of response to generalized stimuli is weaker than the response to directly conditioned stimuli. We know from Watson's writing that Little Albert's response lasted over a month.
We do not know whatever happened to Little Albert. Reviewing this research always creates an image for me of some lonely, elderly man, huddled on a street in Baltimore, scared to interact with anyone because of his many fears of soft or white objects. Ands worst of all, he has no idea why he is afraid!
