Age and Dress of Experimenter in Verbal Conditioning

Abstract

60 males and 60 females performed in a verbal conditioning procedure for 3 male experimenters who were of different ages and either “formally” or “casually” dressed. To control for extraneous effects of experimenter's attributes, the subject and experimenter were in different rooms and communicated by intercom. Only subjects classified as “aware” on the basis of a post-experimental questionnaire increased their emission of the reinforced response over trials. Among these “aware” subjects, the tendency was significantly greater for females than for males. Age and dress of the experimenter had no effect on subjects' performances.