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Watson & Rayner (1928) - Coggle Diagram
Watson & Rayner (1928)
Aim
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Specifically, to find out if a fear response to a white rat can be conditioned into a 9 month old baby boy and to see how long the conditioning will last for after the experiment has ended
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DV
The dependent variable is the number of fearful behaviours that Little Albert present when he is presented with the stimuli of the white rat
Sample
Opportunity sample of 1 baby boy, Little Albert aged 9 months at the start of the study and 11 months when the conditioning begun. Albert was chosen as he seemed healthy and quite fearless. Albert’ mother was paid $1.
Procedure
- At 9 months Albert was tested with a white rat, a rabbit, cotton wool and other stimuli to see if he had a fear reaction , he didn't so they were neutral stimuli.
- The researchers checked his fear response by banging on an iron bar which Albert cried at which shows that it is a unconditioned stimulus and the crying was the unconditioned response.
- At 11 months, Albert was conditioned by being shown the white rat 3 times and each time, the rat was paired with the striking of the iron bar. Albert then started to whimper.
- A week later, Albert was conditioned again, the rat was presented 3 times and paired with the noise.
Results
Over the 10 days, Watson & Rayner tested Albert’s reaction to the rat and to other white, furry animals like a rabbit, a dog and Watson wearing a Santa mask. This caused a similar reaction from Albert to the white rat and therefore this experiment ended up in Albert having stimulus generalisation.
Albert’s responses where the same in a lecture hall instead and also tested Albert a month later and in both instances Albert responded with the same fear responses.
Conclusion
Watson & Rayner concluded that they have successfully conditioned Albert to fear the white rat and that his fear response generalised to other white furry things (which a more stronger response the more closely they resembled the rat), and transferred to other situations.
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