Final answer:
John Watson and his graduate student Rosalie Rayner were responsible for the classical conditioning experiment involving Little Albert. They successfully conditioned him to fear a white rat and similar furry objects through the process of stimulus generalization.
Step-by-step explanation:
The individual responsible for the classical conditioning of Little Albert was John Watson, along with his graduate student Rosalie Rayner. In their groundbreaking experiment, Watson and Rayner demonstrated how fears could be conditioned in a human being, in this case, a baby known as Little Albert. The process involved presenting the child with various neutral stimuli, which did not initially cause fear, and then pairing one of these stimuli, a white rat, with a loud noise that naturally elicited a fear response. This pairing eventually led to Little Albert developing a conditioned fear response to the white rat and similar furry objects, demonstrating stimulus generalization.
To answer specifically, the individuals responsible for this research were C. John Watson and Rosalie Rayner.