CLASSICAL CONDITIONING PROCESS – THE THEORY OF LEARNING

Question

The "Little Albert" experiment was a famous psychology experiment conducted by behaviorist
John B. Watson and graduate student Rosalie Raynor. Previously, Russian physiologist Ivan
Pavlov had conducted experiments demonstrating the conditioning process in dogs. Watson was
interested in taking Pavlov's research further to show that emotional reactions could be
classically conditioned in people. The participant in the experiment was a child that Watson and
Rayner called "Albert B.", but is known popularly today as Little Albert.
Around the age of nine months, Watson and Rayner exposed the child to a series of stimuli
including a white rat, a rabbit, a monkey, and masks and burning newspapers and observed the
boy's reactions. The boy initially showed no fear of any of the objects he was shown. The next
time Albert was exposed the rat; Watson made a loud noise by hitting a metal pipe with a
hammer. Naturally, the child began to cry after hearing the loud noise. After repeatedly pairing
the white rat with the loud noise, Albert began to cry simply after seeing the rat.
The instant the rat was shown, the baby began to cry. Almost instantly he turned sharply to the
left, fell over on [his] left side, raised himself on all fours and began to crawl away so rapidly
that he was caught with difficulty before reaching the edge of the table." In addition to
demonstrating that emotional responses could be conditioned in humans, Watson and Rayner
also observed that stimulus generalisation had occurred. After conditioning, Albert feared not
just the white rat, but a wide variety of similar white objects as well. His fear included other
furry objects including Raynor's fur coat and Watson wearing a Santa Claus beard.
b. From the case study above identify and explain the following : neutral stimulus,
unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned stimulus and conditioned
response

Answer 1

- Neutral stimulus: In the case study, the neutral stimulus would be the white rat initially shown to Little Albert. Before any conditioning took place, the white rat did not elicit any fear or emotional response from the child.

- Unconditioned stimulus: The unconditioned stimulus in the experiment was the loud noise made by hitting a metal pipe with a hammer. This loud noise naturally elicits a fear response in most individuals, including children.

- Unconditioned response: The unconditioned response was the natural fear response displayed by Little Albert after hearing the loud noise. Crying was the specific response observed in this case.

- Conditioned stimulus: The conditioned stimulus was the white rat that was repeatedly paired with the unconditioned stimulus (loud noise). Eventually, Albert began to associate the rat with the loud noise and developed a conditioned response.

- Conditioned response: The conditioned response refers to the fear response that Little Albert displayed after repeatedly pairing the white rat (conditioned stimulus) with the loud noise (unconditioned stimulus). This response involved crying and other physical reactions, such as turning sharply, falling over, and crawling away rapidly. The fear response generalized to other similar white objects, such as the fur coat and Santa Claus beard.