The effect of reinforcement schedules on meaning generalization and on awareness of the purpose of the experiment1

Abstract

The present research is concerned with the transfer of meaning from meaningful, emotional words to nonsense syllables, when both are presented together m a fashion analogous to a classical conditioning procedure More specifically, it evaluates the effects of number of trials and percentage of reinforcement upon the conditioning of meaning A further aspect of the research involves an assessment of the effects of the independent variables on awareness of the purpose of the experiment which in turn could mediate the expected conditioning findings Thus, the various schedules of reinforcement constitute mdependent variables, while the classical conditioning of meaning and the awareness of conditioning are the two dependent variables being examined in this experiment Awareness as used in this study may be defined as 5"'s verbalizing an awareness of the contiguous relationship between a class of affective words and a nonsense syllable The general conclusion derivable from those studies which provide more than a passing reference to awareness is that there is little consistency with respect to the criteria for its presence and little agreement as to its determinants In fact, Tatz (as cited by Krasner, 1958) raises the question whether many 5's considered unaware in most studies were truly unaware since partially correct hypotheses were often utilized Moreover, Buss, Gerjuoy, & Zusman (1958) and Levin (1961) conclude that verbal conditioning, l e , increased use of first-person pronouns in constructing sentences, occurred only when the S later was able to express awareness of the contingency In a related vein Enksen ' This pap«r is adapted from a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D degree at the Umversity of Rochester The author wishes to express his appreciaticm to Emory L G>wen, chairman of the doctoral committee, and to Arthur W Staats and Carolyn K Staats, whose generous interest was instrumental in directing the onentation of the research • Now at the Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, Rhode Island

Generalization of verbally conditioned meaning from symbol to referent.

“…Weighing against this is the possibility that a more detailed post-experimental assessment of awareness, such as used by Levin (1961), might eliminate any evidence of "automatic" conditioning. Such an outcome would be consistent with the results of Gerstein (1961) and Montmollin and Le Ny (1962), who were unable to obtain a significant effect of the Staats' conditioning procedure among unaware subjects. These developments appear entirely comparable to those occurring in recent research on operant conditioning of verbal behaviour (for example, Dulany, 1961;Spielberger, 1962;Spielberger & Levin, 1962).…”

“…In anticipation of the results it should be pointed out, however, that awareness was considered in Experiment II and emerged as a crucial variable. This contrasts with Staats, Staats, and Heard (1959), who reported conditioning among subjects who were unable to verbalize the relevant experimental contingencies, but is consistent with more recent studies of classical conditioning of meaning (Gerstein, 1961;MontmoUin & Le Ny, 1962) and operant conditioning of verbal behaviour (for example, Dulany, 1962;Levin, 1961;Spielberger, 1962;Spielberger & Levin, 1962) in which little or no conditioning occurred without awareness.…”