The Tale of Little Albert

Abstract

Can fear be taught? This was the main question behind this study by Watson and Rayner. They wanted to demonstrate that behaviourist theory could be applied to humans. The study is usually described by referring to the concept of classical conditioning developed by the Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov studied the salivation response in dogs and noticed that food in the mouth will stimulate salivation. This natural link between stimulus and response is called a reflex. Pavlov presented his dogs with a neutral stimulus (such as a bell) before putting the food in their mouths. After this had been repeated a few times the dogs began to associate the bell with the arrival of the food and would salivate to the sound of the bell: they had learnt a new stimulus---response (s---r) relationship (see Figure 14.2). Pavlov and Watson believed that a lot of human learning could be explained in terms of learnt s---r relationships, and the study described below is often cited as an illustration of this.