John B. Watson and his assistant Rosalie Rayner conducted an experiment on a 9-month old boy called Little Albert to study emotional learning and stimulus generalization. They showed Albert neutral stimuli like a white rat while making a loud noise, causing him to become afraid of the rat and other similar objects. Unfortunately, they returned Albert to his mother without undoing the conditioning, and he died at age 6 still fearful without understanding why. The experiment supported Watson's behaviorist theory that all behaviors are learned through conditioning and reinforcement.

1. Little
Little Albert’s Experiment

2. - Activity -
• Think of a teacher that’s most
unforgettable to you in your
elementary or high school…
• Are there things that when you
encounter at present make you “go
back to the past” and recall this
teacher? What are these things?

3. Proponent:
John B. Watson (1878 –1958)
• American psychologist who
established the Psychological School
of Behaviorism.
• Influenced by Pavlov’s Classical
Conditioning Theory.
• Famous research – related to
children’s emotion (Emotion learning:
Stimulus Generalization)

4. Proponent:
Rosalie Rayner
• Watson’s graduate student-assistant
• Had an affair with Watson but
eventually became his wife after
Watson got divorced.

5. The Experiment
• Watson and Rayner took a 9mos. old
child.
• Paid the mother of the child $1.00
• Gave the child a Pseudo name, Albert
• Showed Albert neutral stimulus such
as a white rat, a puppy, santa mask, a
rabbit and a fur coat

7. The Experiment

9. The Experiment
• Unfortunately after the said
experiment they returned the child
without undoing what they have done
to Little Albert
• Little Albert died after 6 years with all
the fears he has without exactly
knowing why

10. Theory of Behaviorism
• focuses on the study of observable and
measurable behaviour.
• emphasizes that behaviour is mostly
learned through conditioning and
reinforcement (reward and punishment).
• does not give much attention to the
mind and the possibility of thought
processes occurring in the mind

11. Classical Conditioning
• Deals with the reflexes or responses
that are evoked from a specific
stimulus.
• People can be trained to perform a
certain task or response by providing
some sort of trigger, which may be a
sound, picture, phrase, etc.

12. Implications in Teaching and
Learning
• All types of behaviour can be learned
through conditioning process. Positive
behaviour can be taught by using
suitable stimulus.
• Pupils ought to relate the relationship
between all responses systematically in
order to master the skill of solving
problems.

13. Implications in Teaching and
Learning
• More exercises should be carried out
after learning in order to strengthen
what has been learned in the memory
• Teacher should use suitable stimulus
during the teaching process to motivate
pupils in learning, and at the same time,
avoid using stimulus which will produce
negative effect.

14. The Pros and Cons of Behaviorism
Pros:
• Behaviorism is based on observable
behaviors, making it easier to conduct
and collect data and research.
• Can be applicable/helpful for therapy of
children with behavioral disorders

15. The Pros and Cons of Behaviorism
Cons:
• Does not account for other ways of
learning that do not involve
reinforcement
• People can change their behavior when
presented with new information, even if
they have previously established a
different behavior through
reinforcement.