The Little Albert Experiment

Over Veiw

• conducted by behaviorist John B. Watson and graduate student Rosalie Raynor
• Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov had conducted a similar experiment 
• Watson wanted to prove that classical conditioning could work on people 

The Experiment

• Subject: 9 month old named Albert.B
• The child was expposed to a series of stimuli
• white rat, a rabbit, a monkey, masks and burning newspapers
• The boy showed no fear in any of these objects

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• Exposed to the white rat again with a loud noise multiple times
• When shown just the rat the boy would begin to show fear and cry

Classical Conditioning

• classical conditioning is a learning process that occurs through associations 
•  between an environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulu
• a fear response was conditioned in Little Albert

Controversy

• the experimental design and process was not carefully constructed
•  The Little Albert experiment could not be conducted by today's standards because it would be unethical
• Albert was not the "healthy" and "normal" child, he suffered from hydrocephalus since birth  
• Could not find Albert years later after the experiment was conducted 

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