Little-Albert-Experiment

The Little Albert experiment demonstrates the possibility of classical conditioning of people, especially the learnability and generalization of fear responses. It was performed in 1920 at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, USA ) by John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner his assistant. My starting point was the empiricist assumption that the number of stimuli that trigger an emotional response that can be propagated easily.

Experiment

The subject Merritte Douglas, called " Little Albert" ( German: Little Albert), was the son of a nurse at the Harriet Lane Hospital.

In a preliminary study, Watson and Rayner examined the emotional reactions of the nine- month-old Douglas Merritte. One each briefly and for the first time in his life showed him with and without hair, cotton, burning newspapers and the like, a white rat, a rabbit, a dog, a monkey, human masks. The child never showed this fear, but always attacked curious about things. Very well, the child showed fear, however, when it stopped, as was struck behind him with a hammer on an iron rod.

In the actual experiment Watson " Little Albert" was (he was eleven now months old) first a white rat and let him simultaneously hear the loud sound of the iron bar behind him. He whimpered slightly as he touched the rat by hand. After repeated twice to "Little Albert" already refused to touch the rat, after seven repetitions he was already a massive fear response at the sight of the rat. Finally, he also showed fear at the sight of the rat -like stimuli, from fur ( rabbit, dog, fur coat ), cotton tufts and white beards.

Watson and Rayner assumed that the learned responses remain throughout life exist and change the personality permanently. In fact, the empirical basis for such far-reaching conclusions as more thin.

Criticism

The experiment is from the perspective of research today is very controversial. Supposedly pulled the mother of "Little Albert" in a different area, so that Watson could not start the reconditioning. Furthermore, it must be based on the current research situation of that Watson and Rayner fundamental principles of the methodology have been injured. So missing a quantification and systematic control of the variables.

There also arise strong ethical concerns as the method of the people experiment does not correspond to a toddler today's ethical standards.

One problem with later depictions of the experiment arises from the fact that the experiment is sometimes not exactly reproduced in subsequent literature and certain aspects, such as the conditioned fear response, have been exaggerated. Also, the experimental setup was modified in the literature again and again given falsely.