Little Albert experiment
E537234
The Little Albert experiment was a controversial early 20th-century psychology study in which John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner attempted to demonstrate that emotional responses like fear could be classically conditioned in a young child.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Little Albert experiment canonical | 5 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T5642833 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Little Albert experiment Context triple: [John B. Watson, knownFor, Little Albert experiment]
-
A.
Skinner box
The Skinner box is an experimental apparatus used in behavioral psychology to study and control animal learning through systematically administered rewards and punishments.
-
B.
John B. Watson
John B. Watson was an American psychologist who founded the school of behaviorism, emphasizing the study of observable behavior over introspection.
-
C.
Tuskegee syphilis study
The Tuskegee syphilis study was a notorious, decades-long U.S. Public Health Service experiment in which Black men with syphilis were misled and denied effective treatment, becoming a landmark example of unethical medical research.
-
D.
Murray Sidman
Murray Sidman was an American behavioral psychologist best known for his pioneering work in experimental analysis of behavior and the development of the Sidman avoidance procedure.
-
E.
Stanley Milgram
Stanley Milgram was an American social psychologist best known for his groundbreaking obedience experiments that explored individuals’ willingness to follow authority figures even when asked to harm others.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Little Albert experiment Target entity description: The Little Albert experiment was a controversial early 20th-century psychology study in which John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner attempted to demonstrate that emotional responses like fear could be classically conditioned in a young child.
-
A.
Skinner box
The Skinner box is an experimental apparatus used in behavioral psychology to study and control animal learning through systematically administered rewards and punishments.
-
B.
John B. Watson
John B. Watson was an American psychologist who founded the school of behaviorism, emphasizing the study of observable behavior over introspection.
-
C.
Tuskegee syphilis study
The Tuskegee syphilis study was a notorious, decades-long U.S. Public Health Service experiment in which Black men with syphilis were misled and denied effective treatment, becoming a landmark example of unethical medical research.
-
D.
Murray Sidman
Murray Sidman was an American behavioral psychologist best known for his pioneering work in experimental analysis of behavior and the development of the Sidman avoidance procedure.
-
E.
Stanley Milgram
Stanley Milgram was an American social psychologist best known for his groundbreaking obedience experiments that explored individuals’ willingness to follow authority figures even when asked to harm others.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
behaviorist research
ⓘ
classical conditioning study ⓘ psychology experiment ⓘ |
| conditionedResponse | fear ⓘ |
| conditionedStimulus | white rat ⓘ |
| conductedAt | Johns Hopkins University ⓘ |
| country |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| demonstratedConcept |
acquisition of phobias
ⓘ
classical conditioning of emotion ⓘ conditioned emotional response ⓘ stimulus generalization ⓘ |
| ethicalIssue |
absence of deconditioning
ⓘ
lack of follow-up care ⓘ lack of informed consent ⓘ psychological harm to child ⓘ use of vulnerable population ⓘ |
| field | psychology ⓘ |
| hasUncertainty |
long-term effects on participant
ⓘ
true identity of Little Albert ⓘ |
| influenced |
development of behaviorism
ⓘ
research on fear conditioning ⓘ theories of phobia acquisition ⓘ |
| method | pairing neutral stimulus with aversive stimulus ⓘ |
| participant | Little Albert ⓘ |
| participantAge |
approximately 11 months
ⓘ
approximately 9 months ⓘ |
| participantType | infant ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1920 ⓘ |
| publishedIn | Journal of Experimental Psychology ⓘ |
| researcher |
John B. Watson
ⓘ
Rosalie Rayner ⓘ |
| startDate | 1920 ⓘ |
| status |
ethically controversial
ⓘ
historically influential ⓘ |
| stimulusType |
Santa Claus mask
ⓘ
dog ⓘ fur coat ⓘ monkey ⓘ rabbit ⓘ white rat ⓘ |
| subfield |
behaviorism
ⓘ
learning theory ⓘ |
| unconditionedResponse |
fear
ⓘ
startle response ⓘ |
| unconditionedStimulus | loud noise ⓘ |
| usedAsExampleIn |
ethics in psychological research
ⓘ
history of psychology ⓘ introductory psychology courses ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Little Albert experiment Description of subject: The Little Albert experiment was a controversial early 20th-century psychology study in which John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner attempted to demonstrate that emotional responses like fear could be classically conditioned in a young child.
Referenced by (5)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.