Awareness in Verbal Conditioning: Objective Assessment and Automatic Strengthening

Abstract

A Taffel-type verbal conditioning experiment was conducted in order to (a) explore the role of awareness as assessed by a newly developed objective instrument that is not open to the criticisms to which interview techniques have been subjected, and (b) determine whether exposure to different numbers of conditioning trials has an effect upon usage of the reinforced response class and awareness of contingencies. The results indicate that (a) only aware Ss manifest increments in performance, and (b) experimental Ss did not show differential levels of performance, not did increased proportions of Ss become aware as a result of exposure to increased amounts of conditioning and reinforcement. Implications of these results for psychological theory and methodology are discussed.