J. B. Watson's Little Albert, Cyril Burt's twins, and the need for a critical science

An examination of J. B. Watson's correspondence and publications illustrates the gradual development of his views on conditioning, leading to the famous experiment with "Albert and the rat" in the winter of 1919-1920. It also raises some critical questions about the status of this exp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American psychologist 1980-07, Vol.35 (7), p.619-625
Main Author: Samelson, Franz
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Conditioning
Experimentation
Human
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Summary:An examination of J. B. Watson's correspondence and publications illustrates the gradual development of his views on conditioning, leading to the famous experiment with "Albert and the rat" in the winter of 1919-1920. It also raises some critical questions about the status of this experiment as a classic paradigm for human conditioning. When combined with the recent criticism of C. Burt's (1966) identical-twin data, this material seems to indicate at least occasional failures of 2 major mechanisms safeguarding scientific knowledge: critical analysis and replication. Further consideration of these issues points toward the need for a more critical science. (32 ref)
ISSN:0003-066X
1935-990X
DOI:10.1037/0003-066X.35.7.619