Mediated generalization and the interpretation of verbal behavior. IV. Experimental study of the development of inter-linguistic synonym gradients.

A concept-formation approach to attitude acquisition.

“…Research by Cofer and Foley and associates (5,6,7,12), Riess (28,29), and others demonstrates the significance for language behavior of mediating responses. Other investigations by Reed (23,24,25), Kendler and Karasik (15), and by Goss and associates (2,11) show the importance of verbal mediators in concept formation.…”

Attitude formation: the development of a color-preference response through mediated generalization.

“…His placement of attitude within the framework of behavior theory and his emphasis on attitude as a learned response to definable stimuli appears to be a more research oriented and potentially fruitful approach to the problem than has been taken in the past. An equally important source of stimulation for this study has come from the work on mediated and semantic generalization, particularly from the work of Birge (2), Gofer and Foley and associates (3,4,5,8,9), Keller (11), Razran (13,14), and Reiss (15,16).…”

Mediated generalization and the interpretation of verbal behavior: V. 'Free association' as related to differences in professional training.

“…In previous papers of this series, direct and indirect, or mediated, types of generalization were theoretically discussed (3) and experimentally demonstrated along various gradients (8,4). The development of mediated generalization in an everyday-life situation was also experimentally investigated (9). In the present paper, an attempt will be made to study the relationship between professional training and the type of verbal response obtained in the 'free association' experiment.…”

“…Although mediated generalization per se is not necessarily involved in such associations, the empirical demonstration of verbal associations along a dimension established by professional training would appear to indicate a definite possibility of the operation of mediated generalization along 'professional' gradients. The present study is thus more 'general' than previous studies in this series: in the earlier experiments the investigators controlled the formation of the associations (8,4) or studied associations known to have been formed in a given classroom situation (9), whereas in the present study we are concerned with associations formed in a general curriculum of professional training.…”

“…The development of mediated generalization in an everyday-life situation was also experimentally investigated (9). In the present paper, an attempt will be made to study the relationship between professional training and the type of verbal response obtained in the 'free association' experiment.…”