John Watson and Rosalie Rayner made a loud noise behind Little Albert's head by striking a steel bar with a hammer and then watched as Albert jumped and fell sideways on the mattress on which he had been sitting. Then they offered a live white rat and struck the bar. Albert began to whimper, tremble, and fall over and cry. When the rat was later offered alone, Albert reacted with fear. The fear of the rat served as the ________ in their study.
A) counterconditioned response
B) unconditioned response
C) latent response
D) conditioned response

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The fear reaction of Albert to the rat is the conditioned response in the study, as it was learned through association with the loud noise produced by the striking of the steel bar, which was the conditioned stimulus. The unconditioned response was Albert's innate fear response to the loud noise (which was the unconditioned stimulus) before the conditioning process started. Counterconditioning refers to the process of replacing an unwanted response with a desired response, which was not the case in this study. Latent response does not make sense in this context.

John Watson and Rosalie Rayner Made a Loud Noise Behind