<P> Before the experiment, Albert was given a battery of baseline emotional tests: the infant was exposed, briefly and for the first time, to a white rat, a rabbit, a dog, a monkey, masks (with and without hair), cotton, wool, burning newspapers, and other stimuli . Albert showed no fear of any of these items during the baseline tests . </P> <P> In further experiments, Little Albert seemed to generalize his response to the white rat . He became distressed at the sight of several other furry objects, such as a rabbit, a furry dog, and a seal - skin coat, and even a Santa Claus mask with white cotton balls in the beard . However, this stimulus generalization did not extend to everything with hair . </P> <P> For the experiment proper, Albert was put on a mattress on a table in the middle of a room . A white laboratory rat was placed near Albert and he was allowed to play with it . At this point, Watson and Rayner made a loud sound behind Albert's back by striking a suspended steel bar with a hammer each time the baby touched the rat . Albert responded to the noise by crying and showing fear . After several such pairings of the two stimuli, Albert was presented with only the rat . Upon seeing the rat, Albert got very distressed, crying and crawling away . Apparently, the infant associated the white rat with the noise . The rat, originally a neutral stimulus, had become a conditioned stimulus, and it was eliciting an emotional response (conditioned response) similar to the distress (unconditioned response) originally given to the noise (unconditioned stimulus). It should be noted that Watson's experiment had many failings by modern standards . For example, it had only a single subject and no control subjects . Furthermore, such an experiment could be hard to conduct in compliance with current law and regulations, given the expected risks to the subject . </P> <P> Albert was about one year old at the end of the experiment, and he reportedly left the hospital shortly thereafter . Though Watson had discussed what might be done to remove Albert's conditioned fears, he had no time to attempt such desensitization with Albert, and it is likely that the infant's fear of furry things continued post-experimentally . </P>

What was the neutral stimulus in little albert