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Description: Ivan Pavlov's experiment where he demonstrated how dogs could be conditioned to salivate upon hearing a bell, through association with food. Purpose: To show how physiological responses could be conditioned through associations. Outcomes: Established the basis for classical conditioning in behavioral psychology.

Description: Stanley Milgram's experiment assessing the willingness of participants to obey authority figures when instructed to perform acts conflicting with personal conscience. Purpose: To understand the extent of obedience to authority figures within the context of Nazi war crimes. Outcomes: Demonstrated that a high proportion of people would follow orders from an authority figure, even when they believe they are causing harm to another person.

Description: Philip Zimbardo's mock prison experiment where volunteers were assigned roles of either prisoners or guards to study the effects of social roles and power dynamics. Purpose: To explore the psychological effects of perceived power and the dynamics between prisoners and guards. Outcomes: Indicated that ordinary people can adopt abusive behaviors when placed in a role of authority within a conducive environment.

Description: Solomon Asch's experiments on how peer pressure can influence individuals to conform to incorrect group opinions. Purpose: To investigate the power of conformity in groups. Outcomes: Revealed that individuals often conform to majority opinion even when the group view is clearly wrong, indicating strong social influence.

Description: Albert Bandura's study where children observed an adult behaving aggressively towards a Bobo doll and were then observed to see if they would imitate the behavior. Purpose: To test social learning theory and assess if aggression can be learned through observation. Outcomes: Demonstrated that children learn and imitate behaviors they have observed in others, supporting the social learning theory.

Description: Eleanor Gibson and Richard Walk's study on depth perception in infants to see if depth perception is a learned behavior or innate. Purpose: To assess the development of depth perception in humans. Outcomes: Most infants refused to cross the apparent drop, indicating that depth perception is likely innate and not solely a learned behavior.

Description: John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner's experiment in which a young boy, 'Little Albert,' was conditioned to fear a white rat. Purpose: To demonstrate that emotional responses could be classically conditioned in humans. Outcomes: Little Albert developed a fear of the white rat (and similar objects), which indicated that phobias could be the result of conditioned responses.

Description: Wendell Johnson's speech therapy experiment on orphan children to study the effect of positive and negative speech therapy on children's stuttering. Purpose: To determine the influence of reinforcement on speech patterns. Outcomes: This ethically dubious study showed that negative feedback can induce stuttering in children who previously spoke normally, while positive feedback could improve speech in stutterers.

Description: Muzafer Sherif's camp-based experiment that observed the behavior between two competing groups of boys to study intergroup conflict and cooperation. Purpose: To understand how competition and shared goals could impact group dynamics. Outcomes: Revealed that intergroup conflict arises due to competition over resources but can be reduced through cooperative tasks leading to overarching goals.

Description: John Darley and Bibb Latané's experiments inspired by the Kitty Genovese case, investigating why individuals do not offer help in an emergency when others are present. Purpose: To understand the psychological phenomenon of bystander apathy. Outcomes: Demonstrated that the presence of others reduces the likelihood that any one person will help due to diffusion of responsibility.

Description: Harry Harlow's experiments with rhesus monkeys to study the importance of comfort and care given by a mother to her offspring. Purpose: To explore the nature of mother-infant bonding and attachment. Outcomes: Showed that infant monkeys spent more time with the cloth surrogate 'mother' that provided comfort, even if another surrogate provided food, indicating the importance of comfort and security in maternal bonding.

Description: A series of studies conducted at the Western Electric Hawthorne Works, which discovered that workers' productivity increased when they were observed. Purpose: Initially to study the effects of physical conditions on productivity, but it led to insights about the impact of attention on worker behavior. Outcomes: Suggested that the mere observation of workers by researchers was enough to significantly alter behavior, giving rise to the concept of the Hawthorne Effect.

Description: Lee Ross's experiments that demonstrated that individuals often overestimate the extent to which their opinions, beliefs, preferences, values, and habits are normal and typical of those of others. Purpose: To understand biases in social perception and judgement. Outcomes: Revealed the tendency for people to assume that their own choices and opinions are more common than they actually are.

Description: Research on brain plasticity involving the striatum, a part of the brain associated with habit formation and procedural learning. Purpose: To understand the neural basis for habit formation and the plasticity of the brain. Outcomes: Found evidence that the neural pathways in the striatum change in response to new habits and experiences, providing insight into the flexibility of the brain in forming new habits.

Description: Elizabeth Loftus and John Palmer's research to investigate the accuracy of memory and the effect of post-event information on eyewitness testimony. Purpose: To examine whether language used in eyewitness testimony can alter an individual's memory of an event. Outcomes: Demonstrated that the wording of questions can influence an eyewitness's recall of an event, leading to altered memories and the misinformation effect.

Description: Mary Ainsworth's procedure to observe early emotional attachment between a child and its primary caregiver. Purpose: To classify the nature of attachment relationships between infants and their caregivers. Outcomes: Identified three main attachment styles – secure, ambivalent-insecure, and avoidant-insecure – which had a long-term impact on children's development.

Description: Stanley Schachter and Jerome E. Singer's experiment where they injected participants with adrenaline and observed their emotional reactions in different contexts. Purpose: To test their two-factor theory of emotion, which posited that emotion comes from a combination of a state of arousal and a cognitive label. Outcomes: Supported the theory by showing that participants' emotional reactions varied depending on the provided context and interpretation of their arousal state.

Description: A standard economic experiment in which two participants have to agree on how to divide a sum of money. One proposes the split, and the other accepts or rejects it. Purpose: To study fairness, decision making, and negotiation, as well as the inclination to punish unfair behavior. Outcomes: Showed that people often reject unfair offers, even at a cost to themselves, indicating a strong preference for fair treatment and a willingness to punish unfairness.

Description: Karl Duncker's cognitive performance test where participants are asked to fix a lit candle on a wall in a way so the candle wax won't drip onto the table below. Purpose: To assess problem-solving skills and the influence of functional fixedness on one's ability to find creative solutions. Outcomes: Revealed that individuals often struggle to see objects beyond their traditional use, illustrating the concept of functional fixedness in problem-solving.

Description: Walter Mischel's series of studies on delayed gratification where children were offered a choice between an immediate smaller reward or a delayed larger reward. Purpose: To understand self-control and future success in children. Outcomes: Found that children who were able to wait longer for the larger rewards tended to have better life outcomes, as measured by various indicators.

Description: Martin Seligman's experiments where dogs were exposed to inescapable electric shocks and later failed to escape even when it was possible. Purpose: To study the cognitive aspect of motivation and the phenomenon of learned helplessness. Outcomes: Led to the hypothesis that depression and other mental illness could be the result of learned helplessness from the perception that one has no control over the outcome of a situation.

Description: J. Ridley Stroop's demonstration of cognitive interference where a color word is printed in a color not denoted by the word itself and individuals must name the color of the word. Purpose: To study attention and the automaticity of reading. Outcomes: Showed that naming the color of the ink takes longer and is more prone to errors than when the color of the ink matches the name of the color.

Description: David Dunning and Justin Kruger's research on cognitive bias where people with low ability at a task overestimate their ability. Purpose: To explore the relationship between competency and self-assessment skills. Outcomes: Demonstrated that individuals with limited knowledge or competency in a given area often fail to recognize their deficiency and can overestimate their own skills.

Description: Philip Zimbardo's approach to studying how individual differences in temporal perspective, or time orientation, affect behavior and psychology. Purpose: To understand how different orientations toward time – past, present, and future – can impact an individual's mental and emotional well-being. Outcomes: Developed a framework for understanding how a balanced time perspective can lead to a healthier and more productive life.