Download 052 Classical Conditioning II

Psychology: Perception and Memory
Classical Conditioning II; Pg. 319-325
Name:
Vocabulary: Define the following terms in your own words
Spontaneous Recovery:
Generalization:
Discrimination:
Answer the following questions in YOUR OWN WORDS. You only have to do ONE of the questions
marked with asterisks ***
1.
Give an example (NOT FROM THE BOOK) of when someone might experience spontaneous
recover of a previously learned skill.
2. Read the Article below about “Little Albert”. What TWO characteristics of the white rat
were generalized to produce fear?
The Little Albert Experiment
A Closer Look at the Famous Case of Little Albert
By Kendra Cherry
Updated November 22, 2016
https://www.verywell.com/the-little-albert-experiment-2794994
The "Little Albert" experiment was a famous psychology experiment conducted by behaviorist
John B. Watson and graduate student Rosalie Rayner. Previously, Russian physiologist Ivan
Pavlov had conducted experiments demonstrating the conditioning process in dogs. Watson was
interested in taking Pavlov's research further to show that emotional reactions could be
classically conditioned in people.
A Closer Look
The participant in the experiment was a child that Watson and Rayner called "Albert B.", but is
known popularly today as Little Albert.
Around the age of nine months, Watson and Rayner exposed the child to a series of stimuli
including a white rat, a rabbit, a monkey, masks and burning newspapers and observed the boy's
reactions. The boy initially showed no fear of any of the objects he was shown.
The next time Albert was exposed to the rat, Watson made a loud noise by hitting a metal pipe
with a hammer. Naturally, the child began to cry after hearing the loud noise. After repeatedly
pairing the white rat with the loud noise, Albert began to cry simply after seeing the rat.
Watson and Rayner wrote:
"The instant the rat was shown, the baby began to cry. Almost instantly he turned sharply to the left, fell
over on [his] left side, raised himself on all fours and began to crawl away so rapidly that he was caught
with difficulty before reaching the edge of the table."
Elements of Classical Conditioning in the Little Albert Experiment
The Little Albert experiment presents and example of how classical conditioning can be used to
condition an emotional response.
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Neutral Stimulus: The white rat
Unconditioned Stimulus: The loud noise
Unconditioned Response: Fear
Conditioned Stimulus: The white rat
Conditioned Response: Fear
Stimulus Generalization in the Little Albert Experiment
In addition to demonstrating that emotional responses could be conditioned in humans, Watson
and Rayner also observed that stimulus generalization had occurred.
After conditioning, Albert feared not just the white rat, but a wide variety of similar white
objects as well. His fear included other furry objects including Raynor's fur coat and Watson
wearing a Santa Claus beard.
Criticisms of the Little Albert Experiment
While the experiment is one of psychology's most famous and is included in nearly every
introductory psychology course, it has also been criticized widely for several reasons. First, the
experimental design and process were not carefully constructed. Watson and Rayner did not
develop an object means to evaluate Albert's reactions, instead relying on their own subjective
interpretations. Secondly, the experiment also raises many ethical concerns. The Little Albert
experiment could not be conducted by today's standards because it would be unethical.
What Ever Happened to Little Albert?
The question of what happened to Little Albert has long been one of psychology's mysteries.
Watson and Rayner were unable to attempt to eliminate the boy's conditioned fear because he
moved with his mother shortly after the experiment ended.
Some envisioned the boy growing into a man with a strange phobia of white, furry objects.
Recently, however, the true identity and fate of the boy known as Little Albert was discovered.
As reported in American Psychologist, a seven-year search led by psychologist Hall P. Beck led
to the discovery. After tracking down and locating the original experiments and the real identity
of the boy's mother, it was suggested that Little Albert was actually a boy named Douglas
Merritte.
The story does not have a happy ending, however. Douglas died at the age of six on May 10,
1925 of hydrocephalus, a build-up of fluid in his brain. "Our search of seven years was longer
than the little boy’s life," Beck wrote of the discovery.
In 2012, Beck and Alan J. Fridlund published their discovery that Douglas Merritte was not the
"healthy" and "normal" child that Watson described in his 1920 experiment. Instead, they found
that Merritte had suffered from hydrocephalus since birth and presented convincing evidence that
Watson knew about the boy's condition and intentionally misrepresented the state of the child's
health. These findings not only cast a shadow over Watson's legacy, they also deepen the ethical
and moral issues of this well-known experiment.
In 2014, doubt was cast over Beck and Fridlund's findings when researchers presented evidence
that a boy by the name of William Barger was the real Little Albert. Barger was born on the
same day as Merritte to a wet-nurse who worked at the same hospital as Merritte's mother. While
his first name was William, he was known his entire life by his middle name, Albert.
While experts continue to debate the true identity of the boy at the center of Watson's
experiment, there is little doubt that Little Albert left a lasting impression on the field of
psychology.
3.
How could you change the experiment to get ‘Little Albert’ discriminate so that he only feared
ONE of the TWO object characteristics he became fearful of.
4. In the Rescorla and Wagner (1972) experiment, why did the light NOT acquire a fear response
from the rats?
5. ***Describe an example of research that demonstrates that biological predispositions can affect
learning by classical conditioning.***
6.
***How are the ideas of biological predisposition and adaptation to the environment
linked?***
7. Describe TWO uses of classical conditioning that have been used in the medical or counselling
fields.