The Case of Little Albert Has Not Been Able to Be Repeated Again Because

Experiment providing information on classical conditioning of human infantile subject field

One of a series of published stills taken from movie of the experiment

The film of the experiment

The Little Albert experiment was a controlled experiment showing empirical evidence of classical workout in humans. The written report likewise provides an example of stimulus generalization. It was carried out by John B. Watson and his graduate pupil, Rosalie Rayner, at Johns Hopkins University. The results were first published in the February 1920 issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology.

After observing children in the field, Watson hypothesized that the fearful response of children to loud noises is an innate unconditioned response. He wanted to test the notion that by following the principles of the procedure at present known every bit "classical conditioning", he could utilize this unconditioned response to status a child to fear a distinctive stimulus that normally would not exist feared by a child (in this case, furry objects).

Method [edit]

The aim of Watson and Rayner was to condition a phobia in an emotionally stable child.^[one] For this study they chose a nine-month one-time infant from a hospital. The child was referred to as "Albert" for the experiment.^[ii] Watson followed the procedures which Ivan Pavlov had used in his experiments with dogs.^[iii]

Earlier the experiment, Albert was given a battery of baseline emotional tests: the infant was exposed, briefly and for the first time, to a white rat, a rabbit, a dog, a monkey, masks (with and without hair), cotton, wool, burning newspapers, and other stimuli. Albert showed no fearfulness of any of these items during the baseline tests.

For the experiment proper, by which point Albert was 11 months old, he was put on a mattress on a table in the middle of a room. A white laboratory rat was placed near Albert and he was allowed to play with it. At this signal, Watson and Rayner made a loud sound behind Albert's back by hit a suspended steel bar with a hammer each time the baby touched the rat. Albert responded to the racket by crying and showing fear. Afterward several such pairings of the two stimuli, Albert was presented with only the rat. Upon seeing the rat, Albert became very distressed, crying and itch abroad. Apparently, the babe associated the white rat with the dissonance. The rat, originally a neutral stimulus, had become a conditioned stimulus, and was eliciting an emotional response (conditioned response) similar to the distress (unconditioned response) originally given to the noise (unconditioned stimulus).^[4]

In further experiments, Footling Albert seemed to generalize his response to the white rat. He became distressed at the sight of several other furry objects, such equally a rabbit, a furry canis familiaris, and a seal-skin coat, and even a Santa Claus mask with white cotton balls in the beard. However, this stimulus generalization did not extend to everything with hair.^[4]

Watson's experiment had many failings by modern standards.^[5] For example, it had just a single subject area and no command subjects. Furthermore, such an experiment could be difficult to comport in compliance with current law and regulations, given the expected risks to the discipline.

Subsequent events [edit]

Albert was most ane year former at the end of the experiment, and he reportedly left the infirmary shortly thereafter.^[vi] Though Watson had discussed what might exist done to remove Albert's conditioned fears, he had no time to try such desensitization with Albert, and information technology is thought likely that the infant'southward fearfulness of furry things continued mail-experimentally.^[seven]

Watson later gave a series of weekend lectures describing the Little Albert report. One of these lectures was attended past Mary Comprehend Jones, which sparked her interest in pursuing graduate piece of work in psychology. Jones conducted an experiment to figure out how to eliminate fear responses in children and studied a boy named Peter, who was two years one-time. Peter shared similar fears of white rabbits and furry objects to Fiddling Albert. Jones was able to increase Peter's tolerance of white rabbits by exposing him to the animal, known as direct conditioning, and having Peter collaborate with children who were not afraid of the rabbit. Mary Encompass Jones was the first psychologist to desensitize or uncondition a fearfulness response and become known as the "Mother of Beliefs Therapy".^[8]

Identifying Little Albert [edit]

Co-ordinate to some textbooks, Albert'due south mother worked in the aforementioned building as Watson and did not know the tests were being conducted. When she found out, she took Albert and moved away, letting no one know where they were going. A 2009 report, notwithstanding, disputes that.^[9] The original report had stated that the baby'south mother was a moisture nurse at the hospital, who may have felt coerced and unable to turn downwardly a request for her baby to be used in Watson's experiment.

Douglas Merritte [edit]

In 2009, psychologists Hall P. Beck and Sharman Levinson published an commodity in which they claimed to have discovered the true identity of "Albert B."^[10] Afterwards reviewing Watson's correspondence and publications, besides as research in public documents (such as the 1920 United States Census and state birth and death records), Beck argued that "Albert B." was a pseudonym for Douglas Merritte, the son of Arvilla Merritte, and then a adult female who appears to have been a moisture nurse at the Harriet Lane Home.^[10]

It was later found that Douglas Merritte suffered from hydrocephalus, from which he died at the age of half dozen. With this status, which is when there is an accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid on the encephalon, Merritte may accept had severe trouble seeing at the time of the experiment, and this voids the claim that the child in question was average and healthy.^[11] According to researchers who looked at this case years subsequently, if Douglas Merritte was, indeed, Petty Albert, his actions during the conditioning sessions align with signs of neurological damage.^[12] This includes Little Albert's use of hand-scooping, rather than grasping gestures typical of this age, also as poor eye-scanning abilities and his lack of facial expressions. Recent research has shown, however, that Douglas Merritte may not have been "Little Albert",^[xiii] who may in fact have been immature William Barger.

William Barger [edit]

The identity claimed past Beck, Levinson, and Irons has been contested by psychology researchers Russ Powell and Nancy Digdon, who offer an alternative identity based on available information.^{[13] [14]} William Barger had been built-in inside a day of Merritte, was known by friends and family equally "Albert" (even though his given name was William), and his mother had likewise worked at the hospital where the experiment was conducted. In add-on, his size and developmental status much more closely matched the experiment'due south documentation of the subject area baby'southward condition.^[fifteen]

Through the use of a professional genealogist, the researchers learned Barger had died in 2007 at age 87 and identified ane close living relative, a niece. In an interview, Barger'southward niece stated that she and her uncle had been quite close throughout his life, best-selling Barger'southward antipathy toward dogs as a well-known fact that family members, particularly his wife, would tease him about (the researchers noted there was no fashion to make up one's mind whether or not this behavior was linked to Watson's experiment). She too informed researchers of her uncle'south aversion to animals in general, not just dogs. Though it was not a particularly strong disfavor, family members would often have to keep their dogs in a carve up room when he visited.^[16] Outside of this, Barger's niece stated that she did not retrieve any other phobias he may take had. The researchers ended that Barger would take been unaware of his office as an infant test subject area.^[17]

Ethical considerations [edit]

The experiment today would exist considered unethical according to the American Psychological Association's ethic code, and legislation has been passed to prevent such potentially harmful experiments.^[18] In the early on 1970s, post-obit widely publicized cases of inquiry abuse, the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Enquiry (NCPHS) was created to study problems surrounding the protection of humans in inquiry.^[18] In 1979, the Commission issued a study entitled Upstanding Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research (commonly called the Belmont Report), which provided the ethical framework on which current federal regulations for the protection of human participants in enquiry are based.^{[19] [twenty]} Under the NCPHS standards set in the late 1970s, an experiment such as Watson's would not have been immune.^{[21] [22]} Enquiry with human participants is also regulated past the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and the Public Health Service Human action. In add-on, grooming of researchers in the use of human participants has been required by the National Institutes of Wellness since 2000.^[18]

Criticisms [edit]

A detailed review of the original report and its subsequent interpretations by Ben Harris (1979)^[23] stated:

Critical reading of Watson and Rayner's (1920) report reveals little prove either that Albert developed a rat phobia or fifty-fifty that animals consistently evoked his fearfulness (or anxiety) during Watson and Rayner'southward experiment. It may be useful for modern learning theorists to run into how the Albert report prompted subsequent research ... but it seems time, finally, to place the Watson and Rayner data in the category of "interesting but uninterpretable" results.

Information technology is difficult to be certain exactly what happened during the Little Albert experiment since concrete evidence and scientific records are lacking. Though a film was shot during the experiment, textbooks interpret the picture differently. Various sources give contradicting accounts of events that took identify, and they heighten questions nearly exactly what stimuli were used, which stimuli the baby came to fear, and what happened to the child subsequently the experiment. It was said that most textbooks "suffer from inaccuracies of various degrees" while referring to Watson and Rayner's study. Texts often misrepresent, exaggerate, or minimize the range of Albert's mail service-workout fears.^[24]

Other criticisms stem from the health of the child (cited equally Douglas Merritte) who was not a "healthy", "normal" infant every bit claimed in the study, but one who was very ill and had exhibited symptoms of hydrocephalus since birth—according to relatives he never learned to walk or talk afterward in life. The kid would die v years subsequently the experiment due to complications from the built disease. It is stated that the study'due south authors were enlightened of the child's severe cognitive arrears, abnormal beliefs, and unusually frequent crying, only continued to terrify the sick baby and generalize their findings to salubrious infants, an act criticized as bookish fraud.^{[25] [26]} These accusations accept been challenged in some other academic commodity which states that the child was actually William (chosen Albert past his family) Barger, and that the child was, in fact, healthy.^[14]

Notes [edit]

1. ^ Hill, G. (2009). AS & A Level Psychology Through Diagrams, pg 27.
2. ^ Watson & Rayner, 1920, p. 1
3. ^ Anyone—Regardless of Their Nature—Can Be Trained to Exist Anything; Watson, John B.; "Big Ideas Simply Explained: The Psychology Volume." London: Dorling Kindersley Publishing, Inc., 2012; Credo web reference-Subscription Required; accessed September 23, 2013.
4. ^ ^{a b} Steven Schwartz; Classic Studies in Psychology; Palo Alto: Mayfield Publishing,1986; impress.
5. ^ Harris, B. (1979). Whatever happened to picayune Albert. American Psychologist, 34(2), 151-160. http://users.sussex.air conditioning.uk/~grahamh/RM1web/Classic%20papers/Harris1979.pdf
6. ^ Hill, pg 177.
7. ^ (Harris, 1979).
8. ^ Rutherford, Alexandra. "Mary Cover Jones". Psychology's Feminist Voices, www.feministvoices.com/mary-cover-jones/.
9. ^ H. P.; Levinson, South., & Irons, Thousand.; 2009; pp.605–614"
10. ^ ^{a b} Beck, H. P., Levinson, S., & Irons, G. (2009). "Finding Piddling Albert: A journey to John B. Watson's infant laboratory" (PDF). American Psychologist. 64 (7): 605–614. doi:10.1037/a0017234. PMID 19824748. {{cite periodical}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
11. ^ H. P.; Levinson, Due south., & Irons, Yard.; 2009; pp.605–614"
12. ^ DeAngelis, T. "Was 'Picayune Albert' ill during the famed conditioning written report?". www.apa.org. American Psychological Association. Retrieved 3 Dec 2020.
13. ^ ^{a b} Powell, Russell A.; Digdon, Nancy; Harris, Ben; Smithson, Christopher (2014). "Correcting the record on Watson, Rayner, and Fiddling Albert: Albert Barger as "Psychology'due south lost boy"". American Psychologist. 69 (half-dozen): 600–611. doi:10.1037/a0036854. PMID 25197838.
14. ^ ^{a b} Digdon, Nancy; Powell, Russell A.; Harris, Ben (2014). "Picayune Albert'south Alleged Neurologicial Impairment: Watson, Rayner, and Historical Revision". History of Psychology. 17 (iv): 312–324. doi:10.1037/a0037325. PMID 25068585.
15. ^ Bartlett, T. (June 2, 2014). "The Search for Psychology's Lost Boy: In 2009 the Decades-old Mystery of 'Trivial Albert' was Finally Solved... or Was Information technology?". The Chronicle of College Educational activity.
16. ^ Powell, Russell A.; Digdon, Nancy; Harris, Ben; Smithson, Christopher (2014). "Correcting the record on Watson, Rayner, and Lilliputian Albert: Albert Barger as "Psychology's lost male child"". American Psychologist. American Psychological Clan. pp. 600–611. doi:ten.1037/a0036854.
17. ^ "Whatsoever Happened to Little Albert?". Edmonton, Alberta: MacEwan University News. June 2, 2014. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
18. ^ ^{a b c} The Belmont Written report – Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research — Regulations and Policy; Website (Download and Video available); HHS.gov; U.s.a. Dept. of Health and Human Services; Function for Human Inquiry Protections; accessed September 2020
19. ^ American Psychological Association; 2013.
20. ^ National Plant of Health
21. ^ American Psychological Association; 2013
22. ^ Note: It is now considered unethical to evoke reactions of fear in humans under laboratory circumstances, except when the participant has given informed consent to existence purposely horrified as part of the experiment. The standards dictate that experiments should non cause the human participants to endure unnecessary distress or to be in any way physically harmed. The welfare of the human participants must always be the paramount consideration in any grade of inquiry, and this is especially true with peculiarly protected groups such equally children.
23. ^ Ben Harris. "Whatever Happened to Little Albert?". Archived from the original on 3 August 2012. Retrieved 30 August 2010.
24. ^ Harris, 2011, 10
25. ^ Bartlett, Tom. "A New Twist in the Sad Saga of Piddling Albert". chronicle.com. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved eight June 2017.
26. ^ Fridlund, Alan J.; Brook, Hall P.; Goldie, William D.; Irons, Gary (November 2012). "Lilliputian Albert: A neurologically impaired child". History of Psychology. 15 (4): 302–327. doi:10.1037/a0026720. PMID 23397921.

References [edit]

• American Psychological Association (2010). Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Lawmaking of Conduct.
• Bartlett, T. (2014, June ii). [1] The Search for Psychology's Lost Boy: In 2009 the decades-old mystery of 'Little Albert' was finally solved. Or was it? Chronicle of College Educational activity.
• Bartlett, T. (2012). A New Twist in the Sad Saga of Piffling Albert.
• Embrace Jones, Chiliad (1924). "A Laboratory Study of Fear: The Case of Peter". Pedagogical Seminary. 31 (4): 308–315. doi:10.1080/08856559.1924.9944851.
• DeAngelis, T. (2010). 'Little Albert' regains his identity. Monitor on Psychology, 41, 1. pp. 10.
• Digdon, Nancy; Powell, Russell A.; Harris, Ben (November 2014). "Niggling Albert's alleged neurological impairment: Watson, Rayner, and Historical Revision". History of Psychology. 17 (4): 312–324. doi:10.1037/a0037325. PMID 25068585.
• Fridlund, A. J.; Beck, H. P.; Goldie, Due west. D.; Irons, G. (2012). "Little Albert: A neurologically impaired child". History of Psychology. 15 (4): 302–327. doi:ten.1037/a0026720. PMID 23397921.
• Harris, B. (2014). Rosalie Rayner, feminist? Revista de Historia de la Psicología, 35, 61-69.
• Harris, B (2011). "Letting go of Little Albert: Disciplinary retentivity, history, and the uses of myth". Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. 47 (one): one–17. doi:10.1002/jhbs.20470. PMID 21207487.
• Harris, B (1979). "Whatever Happened to Niggling Albert?" (PDF). American Psychologist. 34 (2): 151–160. doi:ten.1037/0003-066x.34.ii.151. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-02-05.
• Colina, G. (2009). Every bit & A Level Psychology Through Diagrams, Oxford Academy Printing.
• Hock, R. (2005). Twoscore Studies That Changed Psychology: Explorations into the History of Psychological Enquiry. 5th ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
• Kasschau, R. (2001). Understanding psychology. Columbus, OH: Glenco/McGraw-Hill.
• National Found of Health (2000). Required Didactics in the Protection of Man Research Participants.
• Powell. R. A., Digdon, North., Harris, B. & Smithson, C. Correcting the tape on Watson, Rayner and Little Albert: Albert Barger as 'Psychology's lost boy.' American Psychologist.
• Reiss, B. K. (1990). A biography of Mary Encompass Jones. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. The Wright Institute, Los Angeles, CA.
• Watson, J.B.; Rayner, R. (1920). "Conditioned emotional reactions". Journal of Experimental Psychology. iii (1): 1–fourteen. doi:10.1037/h0069608. hdl:21.11116/0000-0001-9171-B.

Further reading [edit]

• Weiten, Wayne (2001). Psychology: Themes & Variations. Belmont: Wadsworth Thomson Learning. p. 230. ISBN978-0-534-36714-5.

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Albert_experiment

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