In the Little Albert experiment, what stimulus was paired with a loud noise to produce a fear response?

• A. White Rat
• B. Red Ball
• C. Wooden Block
• D. Toy Train

Answer: (A)

Classical conditioning shows how a neutral stimulus can come to trigger a response after being paired with something that already triggers that response. In Little Albert, the loud noise acted as the unconditioned stimulus that naturally produced fear (unconditioned response). The white rat began as a neutral stimulus, and after repeated pairings with the loud noise, it became a conditioned stimulus that elicited fear on its own (the conditioned response). So the white rat is the stimulus that was paired with the loud noise to produce the fear response. The other options were not the conditioned stimulus in this experiment.