Final answer:
The Little Albert study involved conditioning Little Albert to fear certain stimuli using classical conditioning. The UCS was a loud sound, the CS was a white rat, the UCR was fear of the loud sound, and the CR was fear of the white rat. A missing step in the study was the process of extinction.
Step-by-step explanation:
In the Little Albert study, Watson and Rayner conditioned Little Albert to associate certain stimuli with fear. Initially, Little Albert was not afraid of neutral stimuli like a rabbit, a dog, or a white rat. But Watson paired these stimuli with a loud sound, causing Little Albert to become afraid of them.
The UCS (unconditioned stimulus) in this study is the loud sound produced by striking a hammer against a metal bar. The CS (conditioned stimulus) is the white rat. The UCR (unconditioned response) is the fear response Little Albert had to the loud sound, and the CR (conditioned response) is the fear response Little Albert developed towards the white rat.
A step that was missing in this study was the process of extinction. Extinction refers to the gradual weakening and eventual disappearance of the conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus is presented repeatedly without the unconditioned stimulus. Extinction was not conducted in the Little Albert study, which is a limitation of the experiment.