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Little Albert and Classical Conditioning

It is widely agreed that classical conditioning has the ability to work on any particular reflex. This includes orienting reflex, startle reflex, emotional responses like fear and taste aversions. The experiment was conducted on little Albert who was at the age of eleven months. The main aim was to condition the child to fear of a white rat when paired with loud noise. In this experiment, the researchers took a rat suddenly out of the basket and gave it to Albert. He proceeded to reaching for the rat using his left hand. When his hand touched the rat, a steel bar was struck behind his head. Little Albert jumped violently, fell forward and buried his face into the mattress. However, he did not cry. He later got up and started to reach for the rat using his right hand. Immediately the hand touched the rat, the bar was struck. At this point, he jumped in a violent manner, fell forward and then began to whimper. From the point of view of classical conditioning, this is also referred to as a startle reflex or a good scare (Watson & Rayner, 1920).

An unconditioned stimulus refers to a type of stimulus hat has he ability to evoke a response that is unconditioned response without previous conditioning. In other words, there is no learning that is required for the response to take place. Conditioned stimulus on the other hand refers to a previously neutral stimulus which through conditioning attains the ability to trigger a conditioned response. Conditioned response denotes a learned reaction to a particular conditioned stimulus whose occurrence is attributable to prior conditioning.

With respect to conditioning, Watson and Rayner (1920) undertook the tests on a table that was cushioned with a mattress and then situated in a small yet well-lighted dark room. In another experiment, Albert was taken into a large and well lighted lecture room that belonged to the laboratory. He was put on a table and placed in the center of that room under the skylight. The results that were attained from the two tests were very different. The concept of generalization refers to a state where the stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus finally elicit same response. An example in this regard pertains to little Albert becoming fearful of all other animals as well as the fur coat of his mother.

According to Watson and Rayner (1920), the conditioning did not last over time because it lost the intensity of the effect that it was having on little Albert. The concept of extinction denotes to the fact that in instances where the unconditioned and conditioned stimuli fail to be paired for a certain number of trials, the organism stops exhibiting conditioned response. Considering the current standards, the conditioning can not be carried out or replicated by the modern researchers. The current medical standards do not allow the humans to be employed in such a research. In most instances, animals are employed in psychological and laboratory research. There are various ethical concerns that surround the employment of this experiment. Seemingly, little Albert is exposed to frightening conditions that greatly undermine his quality of life. This is apparent in his reactions to the conditions the he is exposed to. The fact that the conditions had long term adverse implications on the wellbeing of the child implies that the research was unethical.

Reference

Watson J. B., & Rayner, R. (1920). Conditioned emotional reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 3(1), 1–14