In answer to Michael Britt's question, we have a candidate (two,
actually).
The earliest use of the phrase "Little Albert" in relation to
Watson's experiment that I could find by database searching is
this one:
Daniel, W.J. (1944). Conditioning a systematic searching
response. The Journal of Comparative Psychology, Vol 37(4),
251-263.
He said:
... and more to the broader problems of trial and error learning.
Even in Watson's case the experiments with "little Albert" were
by no means limited to atomic reflexes. But for the most part the
experimental observations have been ...
The next most recent was this one:
McGill, V.J., and Welch, L. (1946). A behaviorist analysis of
emotions. Philosophy of Science, 13, 100-122.
They said on p. 115:
"Thus even Watson makes clear that little Albert´s reaction to
the rat depended upon its position and movement in Albert´s
space-time situation". "
Note the mention of "atomic reflexes" in the Daniel excerpt and
the even clearer mention of "space-time situation" in McGill and
Welch's. This seem likely to be clever references to the original
"Little Albert", whose field was not psychology but physics.
But I also boldly claim that it was neither Daniel nor McGill and
Welch who were responsible for popularizing the term in
psychology. This was the contribution of Hans Eysenck 15 years
later. Starting in 1959 there was a flurry of "Little Albert"
mentions in his publications at a time when no one else seemed
to be using the term. Given Eysenck's wide readership and
influence, this probably was the start of the irreversable linkage
of "litttle" to "Albert" in the Watson study.
His earliest is this one:
Eysenck, H.J. (1959). Learning theory and behaviour therapy.
Journal of Mental Science, 105: 61-75.
" The paradigm of neurotic symptom formation would be
Watson's famous experiment with little Albert, a nine months old
boy who was fond of white rats (44). By a simple process of
classical Pavlovian conditioning Watson created"
Here's another:
Eysenck, H.J. (1960). Personality and Behaviour Therapy.
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 53(7): 504-508.
".The paradigm of neurotic symptom formation would be
Watson's famous experiment in which, by a simple process of
classic Pavlovian conditioning, Watson and Raynor (1920)
caused a phobia for white rats in an 11-months-old boy ("little
Albert") by standing behind him".
So the names and dates to beat are Daniel (1944) as first user,
and Eysenck (1959) as first popularizer.
Note: I haven't directly checked any of these references, and
give them, my own typos notwithstanding, as they arrived from
the databases.
Stephen
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Stephen L. Black, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology, Emeritus
Bishop's University
e-mail: sbl...@ubishops.ca
2600 College St.
Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7
Canada
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