Final answer:
The correct answer to the students question is d. stimulus generalization, because Little Albert's conditioned fear response to a white rat was generalized to other furry objects that resembled the white rat.
Step-by-step explanation:
In the experiments conducted by John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner, Little Albert was conditioned to fear a white rat. After the conditioning, Albert began to exhibit fear responses to other similar furry objects. The correct answer to the student's question would be d. stimulus generalization. This is because Little Albert's fear of the white rat also led to a fear of objects that shared characteristics with the rat, such as fur, even though these objects had not been previously associated with the loud noise used in the initial conditioning.
In terms of conditioning terminology, the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) was the loud noise, which naturally elicited an unconditioned response (UCR) of fear or crying. The conditioned stimulus (CS) was the white rat, which after conditioning, led to the conditioned response (CR) of fear. The generalization to other similar objects indicates that Albert did not discriminate between the white rat and other furry objects, a phenomenon that Watson and Rayner observed and documented.