Little Albert Experiment

Definition

The Little Albert experiment was a famous psychology study conducted by John Watson and Rosalie Rayner. They conditioned a small child, Albert, to fear a white rat. They also demonstrated that this fear could generalize to other similar objects.

Related terms

Conditioned Response (CR):

In classical conditioning, it's an automatic response established by training to an ordinarily neutral stimulus.

Unconditioned Stimulus (US):

In classical conditioning, it's a stimulus which triggers a response naturally before/without any conditioning.

Generalization:

The tendency for the conditioned stimulus to evoke similar responses after the response has been conditioned.