Little Albert

• Aim: To observe whether a phobia can be conditioned through classical conditioning
• One participant
• 9-month-old Albert 
• Controlled observation
• One condition
• To determine the effects of a certain stimuli
• Laboratory experiment
• Well-lit dark room 
• Motion picture camera used

• Tested emotional responses to certain objects
• Confronted suddenly with a white rat, a rabbit, a dog, a monkey, masks with and without hair, cotton wool, burning newspapers
• Loud sound- striking a steel bar with a hammer (one metre in length and 2cm in diameter

FINDINGS

• No fear response to the objects before conditioning
• They had never seen Albert in a state of fear or rage and practically never cried ('extremely phlegmatic')
• When the bar was struck:
  • 1st time- 'he started violently'
  • 2nd time- same thing and 'his lips began to pucker and tremble'
  • 3rd time- 'crying fit'

• 11 months 3 days old
• Presented a white rat
• When he reached for it, the bar was struck behind his head 

FINDINGS 

• Jumped and fell forward 
• Burying his head on the table where he sat 
• The second time, he fell forward and whimpered a little 

• 11 months 10 days
• The rat with no sound to see previous effects
• Exposed five times to the 'joint stimulation'

FINDINGS

• New response
• Did not reach for it - just stared at it
• When placed nearer, he reached out for it and then withdrew his hand when the rat nuzzled it 
• Blocks were given as a control
• Played happily (the general emotional state was normal, the cautious behaviour was only towards the rat)
• More joint simulation- More and more stressed 
• When the rat was shown again, he began to CRY and began to 'crawl away...rapidly'

• 11 months 15 days
• Generalised to other objects?
• Presented with the rat, wooden blocks, a rabbit, a dog, a seal fur coat, cotton wool and Watson's hair

FINDINGS

• Played happily with the blocks
• Retained the fearful response to the rat
• Rabbit - burst into tears and crawled away
• No violent reaction to the dog nor the fur coat
• Touched the packaging of the cotton wool and not the cotton wool and then became less cautious later
• Played with Watson's hair 

• 11 months 20 days
• 'Freshened up' conditioned response
• New environment
• Well-lit lecture room with four people present

FINDINGS

• Responses to the rat, rabbit and dog were less extreme than before in the new environment
• 'freshening up'- conditioned fear response
• Even when weak, the response was different from the blocks
• Distinct learned response towards furry objects

• 12 months 21 days
• One last testing
• No emotional tests were conducted in between
• Tested with a Santa Claus mask, a fur coat, the rat, the rabbit, the dog and the blocks

FINDINGS

• Test object responses and control object responses were clearly different 
• Reaction to the furry object was not as extreme as previously but he clearly avoided them and whimpered - on occasions he cried