Talk:Little Albert experiment
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This article is largely wrong according to most historians of psychology. Watson's experiment had all sorts of horrible methodological errors in it, if I recall, such as needing to recondition over and over again which completely contaminated his results. Its popularity is more as a pop-psychology story, as a scientific study it is and was always wholly worthless. When I can find the book I have which addresses the Little Albert experiment's methodology in greater detail (the article so far does not get into the half of it) I'll update this a bit as it's not terribly accurate or useful as it stands. --Fastfission 07:44, 20 Apr 2004 (UTC)
The article says that he reacted in a similar way to blocks. The blocks were not a conditioned response, the blocks were there to show that while he reacted to white furry things, immediately after presentation of a white furry object, he was happy to play with the blocks. They were a control to show that it was only the white rat which provoked fear. - sars 13:22, Feb 6, 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Location of John Hopkins University
Not everyone knows it's in the USA !!! (I didn't)
- That's why there's a link to its article. I think the school is reknowned enough to not have its location qualified. (Also, note that it's customary to name US cities along with their states (Baltimore, Maryland, USA), as we have a lot of duplicates.) -VJ 13:38, 15 February 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Little Albert later in life
What became of Albert later in life, as he grew up? Where is he now? Is he still living? Did he still have the fears the experimenters helped him develop as a baby? For how long? Does he still have those fears today? Someone please add about Albert later in his life, and how he's been and what he's done more recently. --Shultz 07:28, 19 January 2006 (UTC)
- I was having a discussion about this case and came to this page looking for exactly that. When I first heard about it in a high school psych class a few years back, my teacher told me that nobody has any idea what became of him. I guess it's possible that still nobody's managed a follow-up study. -VJ 13:40, 15 February 2006 (UTC)
- If he is still alive, the test subject will be about 87 years old. The possibility that he is no long with us is growing bigger each and every day. Not being mean here, but simply trying to explain what could have happened. Arbiteroftruth 15:50, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
I was told in my university psychology class that the fear became extinct - but again, this may not be fact, so please don't take it for gospel! - HS
[edit] folklore
somebody really needs to update the text according to the 1979 article. I removed some errors (first animal was a rat, not a rabbit; reasons for mother moving away is unknown), but there's a lot more in this article that really needs to find its way onto this page. --Sarefo 18:14, 29 November 2006 (UTC)
