WATSON AND RAYNER 1920 (classic study)

Question 1

what was the aim of watson and rayner study

Answer 1

if classical conditioning works on humans and if a fear response could be conditioned into a 9 month old baby and if this fear would be generalised

Question 2

describe the sample for watson and rayners study

Answer 2

albert, 9 month old baby but he was 11 when they began the conditioning ,chosen because he seemed to be “fearless and healthy” and “practically never cried” .His mother was paid $1 for participation

Question 3

describe the procedure of watson and rayners study

Answer 3

1)tested with a white rat before conditioning as a baseline to see if he had a certain reaction to the rat (positive reaction shown) neutral stimuli
2)introduced the unconditioned stimulus which was the banging of the iron bar to which he responded with crying (unconditioned response)
3)when rat presented alone he would cry as NS has now become a conditioned stimulus and crying is the conditioned response

Question 4

describe the generalisation of this response

Answer 4

tested his reaction to other white ,furry things to which he showed similar reactions to

Question 5

describe the transferral of the response to a different setting

Answer 5

moved albert to a lecture hall with 4 other people and showed the same reaction

Question 6

describe the generalisability of watson and rayners study

Answer 6

-case experiment (only conducted on one person)
-never left the hospital to avoid extraneous variables
-videos later showed he lacked attention and focus so healthy?
-died from hydrocephalus at age 6
-him being unemotional and ill means cant generalise to other babies

Question 7

describe the reliabilty and replicability of watson and rayners study

Answer 7

-used rat as a baseline to ensure there was no reaction initially to the NS
-presented with wooden blocks every so often during conditioning to show that he wasn’t just generally getting more scared
-standardised proc and strict controls as only changed one variable at a time
-filmed and documented
-no replication as unethical but same results showed in pavlovs study

Question 8

describe the objectivity of watson and rayners study

Answer 8

watson concluded that albert was a healthy child however could be subjective as later videos showed he lacked attention and focus

Question 9

describe the validity of watson and rayners study

Answer 9

-high internal validity as it’s a lab experiment
-reduced affects of other variables by establishing a baseline
-generalisation of response to similar stimuli shows phobia has been conditioned properly
-transferral of response to diff setting removes situational affect and ensures that it was the rat causing the fear not the env
-no extraneous variables as never left the hospital