PSYCHOLOGY ATAR NOTES

Role of Ethics Committee

• Approval of a research proposal:
  • Approve outright.
  • Approve with conditions.
  • Request modifications or further information.
  • Reject it.
• Monitoring progress of the research study/experiment:
  • Monitor conditions of approval.
  • Protect the rights, safety, and welfare of participants.
  • Conduct random inspections of the research site, data, and consent information.
  • Investigations.
• Monitoring data management:
  • Ensure personal information and consent forms are protected.
  • All data must be encrypted, possibly on a memory stick.
• Investigating complaints:
  • Address unethical conduct or activity.

The Ethical Guidelines

• Protection from Harm - Physical and Psychological
  • Researchers have a duty of care to protect participants from physical and psychological harm.
  • Must stop an experiment and provide access to counseling if a participant is distressed.
• Informed Consent
  • Researchers must obtain written informed consent from each participant, or their parent/guardian if they are under 18 or legally unable to consent.
  • Inform them of their rights, including the right to withdraw, as well as the true nature and purpose of the experiment.
• Withdrawal Rights
  • Participants have the right to withdraw from an experiment at any time without negative consequences.
  • Includes the right to withdraw their data; these rights must be explained before the research begins.
• Deception
  • Researchers may mislead or withhold information from the participants, permissible only in some cases where giving participants information might influence their behavior affecting the accuracy of the results.
  • Must be thoroughly debriefed at the end.
• Confidentiality
  • Researchers ensure information collected during the research is protected and remains private.
  • Not available to anyone outside the study unless participant consent has been obtained.
  • Participant's personal information is not identified in the results.
• Privacy
  • Collecting personal information that is relevant to the research, accessed by those who have permission.
  • Cannot disclose personal information unless informed consent has been obtained.
• Voluntary Participation
  • A participant must be willing to take part or not in an experiment and must not experience any pressure or coercion to participant.
• Debriefing
  • Experimenter must debrief and must correct any mistaken attitudes or beliefs and explain any deception.
  • Providing access to information, results and conclusions, and access to support through counselling.

Use of Animals in Research

• Reduction
  • Methods that achieve the aim and obtain comparable levels of information from the use of fewer animals in scientific procedures, or more information from the same number of animals.
• Refinement
  • Methods that alleviate or minimize potential pain and distress, and enhance animal well-being.
• Replacement
  • Methods that permit the given purpose of an activity or project to be achieved without the use of animals or with the use of non-sentient animals (those that lack a nervous system).

Sensation vs Perception

• Sensation: The passive detection of environmental stimuli by the sense organ/receptors and conversion of sensory information into an electrochemical signal that will elicit a perception.
  • Three stages:
    • Reception: the detection of stimuli/energy (sensory information) from the environment by sensory receptors within sense organs.
    • Transduction: the changing (or conversion) of the stimulus (sensory information) into electrochemical energy (aka neural impulses).
    • Transmission: the movement of electrochemical energy (neural impulses usually via sensory neurons) from sensory receptors to the brain to be processed and interpreted.
• Perception: Is the active process of interpreting and organising selected sensory information in the brain and giving it meaning.
  • Three stages:
    • Selection: Crucial features of information are selected for further processing and insignificant content is disregarded. We also pay attention to certain incoming sensory information that attracts our attention - is salient.
    • Organisation: Selected information is sorted and categorised into related groups or categories and meaningful patterns, based on qualities, position and properties.
    • Interpretation: The process of attaching (or assigning) meaning to the organised groups or categories, using our existing information (schema) about the world, in an attempt to understand them. Perception is also influenced by other factors such as culture, heredity, context, motivation, and age.

Attention and Memory

• Attention: The mental capacity to concentrate on specific stimulus while ignoring other stimuli.
• Memory: The cognitive function through which information and past experiences are actively processed, stored and retrieved.
• Link between attention and memory
  • Attention and working memory are intimately linked, they are both key to learning new information.
  • Attention allows information to be taken in. Our working memory helps the brain make sense of it.
• Selective and Divided Attention
  • Selective attention: Attend to one chosen stimulus (one thing) whilst ignoring/disregarding others.
  • Divided attention: The ability to concentrate on or attend to two or more stimuli at a time (simultaneously).
• COCKTAIL PARTY EFFECT: CHERRY, 1953
  • AIM: to investigate mechanisms of selective attention in complex auditory situation
  • METHOD: In his dichotic listening task, participants heard two different messages played simultaneously in each ear and were asked to shadow (repeat) one message while ignoring the other.
  • KEY FINDINGS: Results showed that participants could successfully recall the shadowed message but could only detect basic physical features (e.g., voice pitch, gender of the speaker) of the unattended message, without processing its meaning. This supported the idea that selective attention filters incoming information, allowing certain details to be processed while others are lost. Cherry concluded that divided attention is limited, meaning the brain struggles to fully process multiple competing stimuli at once.
  • CONTRIBUTION TO PSYCHOLOGY: His findings contributed to early filter theories of attention, which explain how attention acts as a bottleneck, prioritizing certain stimuli for deeper processing while blocking out irrelevant information
  • CRITICISM: simplifying real-world listening situations and neglecting the impact of the shadowing task on performance and the shadowing task may have artificially restricted participants' ability to process the unattended message, leading to an overestimation of the limitations of selective attention
  • REAL WORLD APPLICATION:
    • Speech Recognition Systems (e.g., Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant) - Use noise-filtering algorithms to separate a speaker’s voice from background noise. - Mimic selective attention by prioritizing speech signals over irrelevant sounds.
    • Hearing Aids & Auditory Processing Disorders - Modern hearing aids use directional microphones to amplify important sounds while suppressing background noise. - Helps individuals with auditory processing difficulties by improving speech clarity in noisy environments.

Stages of Memory

• Encoding - the form in which information is stored (learning it, by perceiving it and relating it to past knowledge), e.g. a word that is seen (in a book) may be stored if it is changed (encoded) into a sound or a meaning (i.e., semantic processing).
• Storage - the retention of information within the stores of memory (maintaining it over time).
• Retrieval - the movement of information from the long-term store of memory to conscious awareness (accessing the information when needed).

The Multi-Store Model

• Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)
• Assumes that there are three unitary (separate) memory stores, and that information is transferred between these stores in a linear sequence.
• Each of the memory stores differs in the way information is processed (encoding), how much information can be stored (capacity), and for how long (duration).

• STRENGTH: Multi-Store Model supports the distinction between STM and LTM memory stores, as well as differences between the in encoding, duration and capacity between STM and LTM.
• WEAKNESSES: The multi-store model by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) has been criticised for being an oversimplified, passive, one-way/linear model, in particular when it suggests that both short-term and long- term memory each operate in a single, uniform fashion, that only allows for a one way flow of information. We now know is this not the case.
• Example - Remembering a phone number ☎
  • Maintenance Rehearsal
    • We 1st repeat the number to ourselves (either in our head or verbally) to remember it (keep it in our Short term memory) so that we can use it straight away i.e. Punch the numbers into a phone and make the call. We can also 'chunk' the numbers into 3's or 4's to help us remember a series of numbers, and more numbers, as we repeat them.
  • Elaborative Rehearsal
    • We can link the number to a birthday or the ages of family or friends. Or alternatively we can convert the numbers into a song with a familiar tune. This makes the phone number more meaningful, we link it or associate the number with something already stored in our LTM.
• Elaborative Rehearsal Strategies
  • Chunking
  • Mnemonics
  • Clustering
  • Visualize your work
  • Write it down

Long Term Memory

• LTM is a relatively permanent storage of information.
• Transfer of information from STM to LTM occurs through encoding processes, including maintenance rehearsal and elaborative rehearsal.
• Declarative (explicit) Long Term Memory:
  • Long Term Memory for facts, knowledge, experiences and events, that can be consciously recalled and expressed in words i.e. we declare it verbally, or musically.
  • So, knowing a piece of information that can be consciously brought to mind and declared.
  • So, being able to recall events, facts, concepts, experiences and dates.
  • So, knowing that! So, knowing the meaning of words as well as general knowledge.
• Procedural (Implicit) Long Term Memory:
  • Long Term Memory for how to do something - think my procedures, learnt skills and actions. We acquire procedural memory as a result of repetition or practice - we master skills such they become unconscious recall of how to do something.
  • This allows us to master skills, once its learned it is deeply embedded. Thus, we can change behaviour, such that we can carry out the behaviour unconsciously or automatically.
  • So, knowing how to do things like ride a bike.
• DECLARATIVE CAN BE DIVIDED INTO TWO KINDS….
  • Semantic Long Term Memory:
    • Semantic memory refers to unpersonalized factual knowledge.
    • Semantic memory is understanding the outside word and meanings - so knowing - memories of facts or knowledge.
    • Semantic memory re knowledge of music is all about the notes, pitches, rhythms, theory, history, musicians, that gets built up over time and becomes more advanced with more knowledge, becoming quite a complex framework of knowledge.
    • This includes knowledge about the meaning of words, as well as general knowledge. It involves conscious thought and is declarative.
  • Episodic Long Term Memory:
    • Episodic memory is remembering - an important event, a movie, a particular piece of music - personalized memories experiences or events. Episodic memory is responsible for storing information about specific events (i.e. episodes) that we have experienced in our lives (i.e. life experiences).
    • More so, these memories involve re-experiencing events from our lives, so can be retrieved with conscious effort.
    • For example, what do you remember about your first day of high school? We see the location, the rooms, we hear music that was played, we think about friends and teachers that were there, we remember the smell of places or the food we ate that day, etc.
    • We run the day back more or less chronologically in our minds as 'episodes' (of course with time, the chronology becomes a bit fuzzy - it decays).

The Working Memory Model

• Alan Baddeley and Graeme Hitch (1974) developed an alternative model of short-term memory which they called working memory (WM).
• The working model of memory proposed by Baddeley and Hitch (1974) showed that short term memory is more than just one simple, unitary store and comprises different components.
• Describes short-term memory as a system with multiple components
• Central Executive:
  • The central executive is an attentional system rather than a memory system as it directs attention to the task at hand (particular stimuli) and filters out irrelevant information.
  • The central executive controls the two other main systems (Visuospatial sketchpad and phonological loop) which are often called the slave systems - cause they are a slave to da boss!
  • Puts together the sounds and vision of the two 'slave systems' who are doing all the working.
  • Drives the whole system and allocates data to the slave systems, decides what you pay attention to and what to ignore.
  • So, controls our attention and enables us to perform mental manipulation of data i.e. cognitive tasks.
• FUNCTIONS OF THE CENTRAL EXECUTIVE
  • Inhibition: an aspect of attention by screening or filtering out irrelevant material.
  • Switching: changing attention from one item/stimuli to another.
  • Updating: modifying items brought in from LTM before re-committing them to memory through the episodic buffer; creating a process of accommodation of the semantic memory network.
• VISUOSPATIAL SKETCHPAD
  • Visual working (short term) memory.
  • Storage of what we see.
• THE PHONOLOGICAL LOOP
  • Auditory working (short term) memory.
  • Storage of what we hear.
• EPISODIC BUFFER
  • Helps retrieve semantic information from LTM to integrate it with information that is in the phonological loop and visuo-spatial sketchpad (i.e. the working memory), and to select and encode information into LTM.
  • Filters auditory and visual information between the central executive and long term memory.
• STRENGTHS
  • The Working Memory Model supports how information is processed rather than just to storage.
  • Working memory is supported by dual task studies
• WEAKNESSES
  • Lieberman argues that the VSS should be separated into two different components: one for visual information and one for spatial.
  • only involves STM so it is not a comprehensive model of all memory (as it does not include Sensory Memory or Long Term Memory).

The Case of H.M. & Related Brain Memory Structures

• H.M. suffered severe epilepsy from an early age.
• Portions of the Temporal Lobe of H.M's brain were surgically removed including most of hippocampus and amygdala in both hemispheres of his brain in an attempt to control his seizures.
• H.M. could not form new (declarative) LTM after this - only lived within the confines of Working Memory (STM).
• Maintenance rehearsal - Proved the existence of short term memory and long term memory, and that long- term memory was associated to an area of the medial temporal lobe function.
• Long term memory activity - Proved the existence of procedural long-term memory and declarative long-term memory.
• Overall Impact on H.M:
  • Unable to recall any events experienced after surgery.
  • Unable to learn new concepts, facts or words - so unable to store memories of events and facts
  • Unable to recall events of his life before surgery.
• Proved that different parts of the brain are involved in forming and storing memory both short-term and long- term.
• Important things that came out of this case:
  • There is a distinction between short term memory and long term memory.
  • Two distinct forms of Long-Term Memory exist. These two forms are termed Declarative and Procedural. For H.M., the kind of LTM that was affected was his Declarative (explicit) memory, as he could not retain events or words/facts/concepts after surgery, but not his procedural memory, H.M. could recall skills and learn new skills.
  • Memory is a distinct cerebral function, separable from other perceptual and cognitive abilities, and memory functions are organised and stored in distinct regions of the brain.
• Memories aren’t stored in just one part of the brain. Different types are stored across different, interconnected brain regions.
  • Declarative Long-Term (conscious knowledge - explicit memories), which are about events that happened to you (episodic), as well as general facts and information (semantic) – there are three important areas of the brain: the hippocampus, the neocortex and the amygdala.
  • Procedural Long-Term Memory (Unconscious - Implicit memories), such as skills based knowledge or motor memories, rely on the basal ganglia and cerebellum.
  • Short-term working memory relies most heavily on the prefrontal cortex.

HIPPOCAMPUS

• The hippocampus is located deep in the brain, hidden within the medial (middle) part of the temporal lobe.
• There are actually two hippocampi in the human brain - one in each cerebral hemisphere).
• The hippocampus can be seen lying posterior (further back) to the amygdala.
• Function:
  • consolidating short-term memory into long-term memory (encoding new memories), then shifting those memories into other parts of the brain for storage.
  • It also assists in the retrieval of those memories when needed. So, indexed for later access/retrieval.
• Damage:
  • Damage to the hippocampus can affect the ability to form new memories (termed anterograde amnesia) in particular declarative (or explicit) long-term memory (i.e. facts, events, dates).
  • H.M. could not transfer new information from his STM/WM to his LTM - particularly declarative memory, which is different to procedural memory as this remained.

CEREBELLUM

• The cerebellum is a separate structure located in the hindbrain (rear base of brain).
• The cerebellum's main role is to process procedural long-term memories, in particular, procedures requiring movement and coordination of movement i.e. skills/actions.
• It is most important in fine motor control, the type that allows us to use chopsticks or press the piano keys a fraction more softly.
• It is also involved in posture and coordination, as well as classical conditioning ('conditioned responses').

AMYGDALA

• The amygdala plays a part in how memories are stored as information storage is influenced by emotions and stress.
• The amygdala attaches emotional content to memory.
• plays a part in determining where the memories are stored based on whether we have a strong or weak emotional response to an event, however it is unlikely that the amygdala itself stores memories.
• amygdala seems to facilitate encoding memories at a deeper level when the event is emotionally arousing.
• The amygdala strengthens episodic memories stored in other regions of the brain

Rehearsal as a Strategy To Improve Memory

• Rehearsal: Mental activities associated with committing information to memory.
• Maintenance rehearsal
  • involves continuously repeating the information over and over again, to keep it active in short-term memory (allows information to be stored in STM for longer than the usual 15-30 seconds).
  • Maintenance rehearsal typically involves rote repetition, either out loud or mentally (silently).
• Elaborative rehearsal
  • involves associating new material with information that already exists in long-term memory.
  • making the information more meaningful
• EXAMPLES OF STRATEGIES: self-referencing - linking new information to the self or to personal experiences
• Mind mapping is another great technique to connect/link new information to a central pre-existing idea/central theme

The Role of Repetition as Seen in Ebbinghaus' Forgetting Curve

• Ebbinghaus researched repetition, in particular, the rehearsal of meaningless information and memory repetition overtime.
• The steep drop in memory retention shows that most learnt information is lost/forgotten/decays within the first hour.
  • in fact, more than half of the information learnt is lost within the first four after learning (44%)
  • this rapid loss is followed by a slow decline over the next day (33% left) and by 6 days (25%) until the decline reaches the plateau.
• RELATION TO OUR ASSESSMENTS:
  • So, to delay decay, repeat information often within the first hour, and first day
  • To avoid one must repeat information just before an assessment
  • So, what to do? repeat test information just before test AND repeat information more often to delay decay

Forgetting

• Forgetting: the inability to retrieve information
• Some theories of forgetting include:
  • Retrieval failure theory
    • The inability to consciously recall information stored in the long-term memory store due to the absence of retrieval cues that could trigger memory retrieval
      • the information is in long-term memory, but cannot be accessed
      • information is said to be available (i.e. it is stored), but not accessible (i.e. it cannot be retrieved). It cannot be accessed due to the absence of retrieval cues or a failure to use them.
      • Retrieval cue: a retrieval cue is a stimulus, prompt, hint or clue that aids the recall or retrieval of information stored in long-term memory later on.
        • Retrieval cues can be external or internal
          • External: the environment, the setting, context or situation in which the information is encoded and also retrieved. E.g. a smell, a place, a group of friends, a rainy day, a particular room.
          • Internal: the physical or psychological state of the person when information is encoded and retrieved. E.g. one's physical state, emotional state, mood, drunk, sober, tired, happy, alert etc.
        • The retrieval cues available at recall (retrieval) need to be the same specific cues that were there at learning (encoding).
      • Does not apply to Procedural (implicit) Long-term memory
  • Interference theory
    • When information in the long-term memory store cannot be retrieved due to it being disrupted or impaired by other (usually similar) information. In short, one memory is interfered with by another memory.
      • Two types:
        • Proactive interference: Where previously stored information (old) interferes with our ability to learn or remember (retrieve) new information (new learning).
        • Retroactive interference: Learning of new information interferes with our ability to recall older information.
  • Motivated forgetting
    • The intentional or unintentional suppression of memories or thoughts from conscious awareness to minimize emotional distress.
      • Split to two main categories:
        • Repression: An involuntary and subconscious process - occurs without your awareness - so we may have no knowledge that forgetting has even occurred
        • Suppression: A deliberate, active and conscious effort/attempt to push certain thoughts and memories out of one's conscious awareness.
      • Both categories of motivated forgetting perform the same goal of forgetting memories in order to reduce anxiety.
  • Decay theory
    • A theory of forgetting that states that forgetting occurs due to the gradual fading of memory traces over time due to disuse.
      • Decay theory attributes forgetting to the gradual fading or disintegrating of these memory traces over time, due to the fact that they are not reactivated or used.
      • memories that are not used or revisited simply cease to be required and the memory trace is no longer necessary.
      • Decay theory does not apply to episodic long-term memory

Processes of Remembering

• Memory retrieval is the process of remembering information or recalling information stored in long-term memory. There are three main types of memory retrieval.
• Recall: The process of retrieving information from long-term memory without the provision of retrieval cues to aid in retrieving information.

• Recognition: The ability to identify previously stored information by matching stimuli to stored memory.
• Relearning: Reacquiring knowledge or skills that were previously learned but may have begun to decay over time. So, learning information that you previously learned.

Levels of Processing

• The levels of processing model (Craik and Lockhart, 1972) focuses on the depth of processing involved in memory, and predicts the deeper information is processed, the longer a memory trace will last and the easier the information is to recall.
• Craik and Lockhart suggest that the memory system consists of sensory memory and one other memory store, and that storage varies along a continuum of levels of processing ranging from shallow to deep processing.
• How long (endurance) and how well (strength) information is stored does not depend on three distinctly different types of memory systems; it depends on the level of processing used during encoding in particular, the depth of cognitive processing.
• By depth, Craig and Lockhart were referring to the meaning derived from stimuli.
• Information can be processed in many ways - structurally, phonemically or semantically - and each one requires a deeper level of encoding.
• The deeper the level, the more lasting the memory code and the more likely it is that information may be retrieved.
• Shallow Processing = Structural And Phonemic
  • Structural Encoding: This form of processing encodes physical information based on the physical appearance of the stimulus information (perceptual features). For example if words are flashed on a screen, structural encoding registers such things as what they looked like (capital or lower case), brightness and how long they were (how many letters) but information is soon lost.
  • Phonemic (Fo-nemic) Encoding: The encoding of auditory information i.e. sounds including their loudness. So, what words sound like when we are identifying or naming the information either silently or aloud (the sound of the word is used to identify the information). Phonemes are distinct units of sound
    • Maintenance rehearsal is used in shallow processing to hold information in short-term memory for longer than the usual 15-30 seconds.
    • Because shallow processing encodes information at a basic level, it does not involve meaning, so it creates weak memory traces that may fade quickly (are only in short-term memory) and difficult to retrieve.
• Deep Processing = Semantic
  • Deep processing uses semantic encoding because it emphasizes meaning by linking new information to previously learned information with similar meaning that is already stored in long-term memory. This linking creates associations between the new memory and existing memories and creates deeper memory traces that are stored for longer, making retrieval from long-term memory more likely.
  • Elaboration of information allows (i.e. Elaborative rehearsal) for deep processing because the information is encoded semantically.
  • Semantic encoding works by attaching meaning to the information and/or linking the information to knowledge currently in the long-term store. For example, images and associations
• STUDY - Craik and Tulving, 1975
  • the level of processing model (Craik and Lockhart, 1972) focuses on the depth of processing involved in memory, and predicts the deeper information is processed, the longer a memory trace will last and the easier the information is to recall
  • Craik and Lockhart suggest that the memory system consists of sensory memory and one other memory store, and that storage varies along a continuum of levels of processing ranging from shallow to deep processing

Causes of Memory Loss – CTE

• Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (cte): A progressive brain disease associated with repeated traumatic brain injuries that causes problems with cognition and memory.

Causes of Memory Loss - Alzheimer's Disease (AD)

• Alzheimer's Disease: Is a neurodegenerative disorder, involving the degeneration of neurons (and the connections between them i.e. synapses) in regions of the brain that are involved in cognitive skills and memory formation and retrieval.
• caused by the build-up of abnormal proteins, specifically amyloid and tau, in the brain. These proteins form plaques and tangles, respectively, disrupting communication between nerve cells and eventually leading to neuronal death and brain shrinkage.

Causes of Memory Loss – WKS

• Wernicke Korsakoff: a neurological caused by Thiamine (Vitamin B1) deficiency leading to the degeneration of brain cells once characterised by difficulties forming new memories and retrieving stored memory
• CAUSES: the mammillary bodies, a pair of structure located on the side of the hypothalamus and thalamus. they play a role in memory once start to waste away in individual with wks people with chronic alcohol abuse often have thiamine deficiency thus causing wks
• 2 stages of WKS:
  • wernicke encephalopathy - a severe yet reversible stage that progresses into korsakoff amnesic syndrome, the stage that is chronic and irreversible
  • korsakoff amnesic syndrome

Learning

• A relatively permanent change in behaviour that occurs as a result of an experience

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

• A learning process focused more on involuntary behaviours.
• The learning is caused by the pairing/association of two stimuli (so associative learning).
• Where an automatic, conditioned response is paired with a specific stimulus. This creates a learned behaviour.
• Study: Ivan Pavlov (1902)
  • neutral stimulus (NS) = stimulus that doesn’t naturally elicit a response – a bell ringing or footstep of lab technician
  • unconditioned stimulus (UCS) = specific stimulus that is innately capable of eliciting reflex response. This triggers an automatic response – food is the UCS in Pavlov’s dog exp.
  • unconditioned response (UCR) = natural, automatic response to specific UCS. This naturally occurs when you experience the UCS, such as salivating from the food.
  • conditional stimulus (CS) = stimulus that evokes a specific response due to learning. The bell is presented (over and over) before the food so it will start to evoke the same response as the food.
  • conditioned response (CR) = reflex response to previously neutral stimulus (bell ringing) that occurs due to learning
  • Aim: Pavlov's aim in this study was to investigate classical conditioning in dogs and understand how they form associations between different stimuli.
  • Method: Pavlov conducted experiments where he presented a neutral stimulus (like a bell) followed by a stimulus that naturally elicits a response (like food). Through repeated pairings, the neutral stimulus became a conditioned stimulus that could elicit a conditioned response.
  • Key Findings: was that dogs could be conditioned to associate a neutral stimulus with a biologically significant stimulus, leading to the development of a conditioned response
  • Contribution: Pavlov's work laid the foundation for the understanding of classical conditioning and its significance in learning and behaviour. It has influenced subsequent research in psychology and provided valuable insights into the mechanisms of associative learning.
  • Criticisms: Some criticisms of Pavlov's work include concerns about the generalizability of his findings beyond animal studies, the oversimplification of learning processes, and the potential neglect of cognitive factors in behaviour. Ethical criticisms have also been raised regarding the treatment of animals in research studies.
• Study: Watson & Raynor (1920) – Little Albert experiment
  • Aim: Watson and Rayner aimed to demonstrate that classical conditioning could be used to condition a fear response in a young child (referred to as "Little Albert") towards a specific stimulus.
  • Method: The researchers conditioned Little Albert to fear a white rat by pairing the presentation of the rat with a loud, sudden noise. This was done to show that the fear response could be acquired through classical conditioning.
    • placed on floor in Watsons lab, allowed to play with white rat showed no fear (did not respond negatively to other animals and objects) showed fear when steel bar was struck with hammer, making a loud noise
  • Key Finding: The key finding was that