The effects of differential acquisition-stage emphasis and auto-instructions upon verbal mediating responses

Abstract

Mediated responding was studied as a function of the "emphasis" given to the ac quisition-stage items. Mediated responding was evinced when Ss reported that they had attempted to consider the acquisition pairs while making their choice on the test trial. The greatest evidence of mediated facilitation was obtained when all stimulus items of the acquisition pairs and when the critical response term were emphasized during the acquisition stages. Note 1.

Differential acquisition-stage emphasis, instructions, and verbal mediating responses

“…These results suggested that the interaction observed with Experiment I and the Peterson-Hillner (1966) experiment occurred because the emphasis-conditions fostered retention of at least the critical response until the test trial. The S could then make a test-trial decision which was consistent with the E-imposed (Experiment I) or self-imposed (Peterson-Hillner) instructions.…”

“…The assumption underlying the experimental operations of Experiment I and the Peterson-Hillner (1966) 74 experiment was that emphasis of items during the acquisition stage would facilitate their retention. In both experiments, the immediate recall of C as the response term of the first acquisition pair was almost perfect but the design did not evaluate retention of C at the time of the test trial.…”

“…In an earlier experiment, Peterson & Hillner (1966) systematically emphasized items appearing in various positions of a B-C, B-A, A-CDE mediation paradigm by printing them in red. The control paradigm, X-C, B-A, A-CDE, was shown under the same emphasisconditions as the mediation paradigm.…”