Editing Little Albert experiment (section)

===Albert Barger===
The identity claimed by Beck, et al., has been contested by psychology researchers Russ Powell, Nancy Digdon and Ben Harris, who offer an alternative identity based on available data.<ref name="Correcting" /><ref name="Digdon" /> Albert Barger had been born within a day of Merritte, and his mother had also worked at the hospital where the experiment was conducted. In addition, his body weight and developmental condition closely matched the experiment's documentation of the subject baby's condition.<ref name="Search" /> Moreover, according to Watson and Rayner (1920), Little Albert was 12 months and 21 days the last day of the experiment when "he was taken from the hospital" (p. 12), the exact age Albert Barger had been when he left the hospital.<ref>Powell, et al., 2014, p. 603</ref> Finally, when Powell et al. were allowed to independently verify Douglas Merritte's clinical file, it was revealed that he was "completely blind",<ref>Powell, et al., 2014, p. 607</ref> which is at odds with the experiment's films where Little Albert engages in probable instances of object-directed action and social referencing. 

Through the use of a professional genealogist, the researchers learned Barger had died in 2007 at age 87 and identified one close living relative, a niece. In an interview, Barger's niece stated that she and her uncle had been quite close throughout his life, and acknowledged Barger's antipathy toward dogs as a well-known fact that family members, particularly his wife, would tease him about (the researchers noted there was no way to determine whether or not this behavior was linked to Watson's experiment). She also informed researchers of her uncle's aversion to animals in general, not just dogs. Though it was not a particularly strong aversion, family members would often have to keep their dogs in a separate room when he visited.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Powell |first1=Russell A. |last2=Digdon |first2=Nancy |last3=Harris |first3=Ben |last4=Smithson |first4=Christopher |title=Correcting the record on Watson, Rayner, and Little Albert: Albert Barger as "Psychology's lost boy". |url=https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fa0036854 |journal=[[American Psychologist]] |publisher=American Psychological Association |pages=600–611 |doi=10.1037/a0036854 |date=2014|volume=69 |issue=6 |pmid=25197838 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Outside of this, Barger's niece stated that she did not recall any other phobias he may have had. The researchers concluded that Barger would have been unaware of his role as an infant test subject.<ref name="Whatever" />