Chapter 6
Pages 133-135
What was the purpose of the experiment ?
The Story of Little Albert
- To get Albert to fear the lab rat, rather than be amused by it.
- They decided to pair the rat with something that frightens the infant
- Everytime Little Albert played with the lab rat , Watson would clash steel cars behind his back ... with this being done after several pairing Albert then feared the rat.
- In 1920 an experiment was done on an infant named Albert by John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner
- The rat was the conditioned stimulus that led to the unconditioned response of fear.
- Since the lab rat was the conditioned stimulus that through the association of clanging Little Albert's new found fear didn't end with rats but anything white, and furry like rabbits, fur coats etc.
Who was Little Albert ?
- 11- month old son of one of Watson's and Rayner's acquaintances.
- They observed that Albert , unlike other kids his age had not been frightened easily.
- His playmate was a lab rat
Classical Conditioning
Bell&Pad method for Bed Wetting:
- experiment to teach kids to stop wetting their beds and wake up before they wet
- once urine hits the pad, a bell goes off to wake the child
- this helps them learn and "train" themselves to wake up before wetting
- Method is Unconditional!
- the child wakes because of a biological make up response
- waking to the bell is an unconditional response
- repeated pairings create stimulus (of full bladder) to wake the child and let them know they have to go to the bathroom.
- this is a conditioned stimulus
- after time, it becomes a repeated action and no more bed wetting occurs
Applications:
- means by which stimuli come to serve as signals for other stimuli
- "major avenue of learning"
Flooding&Systematic Desensitization:
- fears are out of proportion ideas of harm happening
- 2 methods for reducing one's fears:
- flooding (flood with fear)
- systematic desensitization (relaxing the senses)
Counter Conditioning:
- Ideas that fears can be counteracted by pleasant ideas following the fear
- distractions from the fear to make it easier to get over