AP Psychology Learning Essay

The paper can be found here.

Starting off on one of the most influential learning experiments of the 20th century conducted by Professor John B. Watson and his graduate student Rosalie Rayner. Largely considered the father of behaviorism, Watson left Johns Hopkins after a scandalous affair with Rayner.[1] His most famous experiment was that of the Little Albert experiment, conducted on an 8-month-old boy. To summarize, the boy was put in the middle of a room; a white rat placed next to him that he was able to play with. At that point the child had no fear of the rat. However, when the researches made a loud sound behind the boy’s back by striking a steel bar with a hammer whenever the child touched the rat. Due to the loud noise, Little Albert often cried during the experiment. After several trials, Watson and Rayner were able to pair the two stimuli, and the child was then shown the rat once again. At this point, he cried and attempted to move away without even touching the rat.[2]

[1] Chamberlin, J. (2012, October). Notes on a scandal. Retrieved December 9, 2019, from https://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/10/scandal.

[2] Sally, M. (2018, July). Introduction to Psychology. Retrieved from http://dept.clcillinois.edu/psy/IntroductionToPsychologyText.pdf.