Little Albert Experiment Quiz: Test Your Knowledge of Watson's Study

🧠 Quick Study Guide: Little Albert Experiment

• 👶 Subject: Little Albert, a 9-month-old infant.
• 🔬 Researchers: John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner.
• 🗓️ Year Conducted: 1920.
• 🎯 Primary Goal: To demonstrate that emotional responses, specifically fear, could be classically conditioned in humans.
• 🔊 Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): A loud noise (hammer striking a steel bar).
• 😭 Unconditioned Response (UCR): Fear and distress (crying) in response to the loud noise.
• 🐭 Neutral Stimulus (NS) / Conditioned Stimulus (CS): A white rat.
• 😨 Conditioned Response (CR): Fear and distress (crying) in response to the white rat after repeated pairings with the loud noise.
• 🧤 Stimulus Generalization: Albert subsequently showed fear responses to other furry objects, such as a rabbit, a dog, and a fur coat.
• 🚫 Major Ethical Concerns: Lack of informed consent, no attempt at de-conditioning the fear, potential for lasting psychological harm, and the general exploitation of a vulnerable infant.
• 📚 Legacy: A landmark study in behaviorism, it profoundly influenced the understanding of learning and highlighted the critical importance of ethical guidelines in psychological research.

📝 Practice Quiz: Little Albert Experiment

1. Who were the primary researchers behind the Little Albert Experiment?

1. Ivan Pavlov and B.F. Skinner
2. Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung
3. John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner
4. Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers

2. What psychological concept was the Little Albert Experiment primarily designed to demonstrate?

1. Operant Conditioning
2. Classical Conditioning
3. Observational Learning
4. Cognitive Dissonance

3. In the experiment, what was the Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)?

1. The white rat
2. A loud noise
3. A soft blanket
4. Albert's mother

4. What was the Neutral Stimulus (NS) that eventually became the Conditioned Stimulus (CS) in the study?

1. A furry mask
2. A loud gong
3. A white rat
4. A toy block

5. A significant finding of the experiment was that Little Albert began to fear other furry objects, not just the white rat. This phenomenon is known as:

1. Spontaneous Recovery
2. Extinction
3. Stimulus Discrimination
4. Stimulus Generalization

6. Which of the following is a major ethical concern raised by the Little Albert Experiment?

1. The use of a single subject
2. The lack of statistical analysis
3. The failure to de-condition Albert's fear
4. The short duration of the experiment

7. Approximately how old was Little Albert when the experiment began?

1. Six months old
2. Nine months old
3. One year old
4. Eighteen months old