Awareness of Aggressive Response Contingencies When Using the Reaction-Time Research Task

Abstract

College students interacted via the Taylor reaction-time method of studying aggression with an opponent who attacked the subject with maximum shocks for six trials and switched to a matching strategy for 1, 6, or 12 additional trials. At the end of the task, subjects responded to a questionnaire that measured awareness of their own shock settings, the opponent's shock settings, and the relationship between shock settings made by the subject and those made by the opponent. While a statistically significant proportion of subjects correctly recalled the shock settings and relationships between shock settings, a substantial proportion of subjects did not. Results were discussed in relation to a “trade-off” between the use of “masking” tasks, such as the reaction-time procedure, to control subjects' response bias, and the risk that stimulus contingencies may be obscured by such “masking” tasks. One solution to the dilemma may be to replicate the findings both with and without a “masking” task.