| dc.description.abstract | The present study was designed to determine the extensibility of a new reinforcement paradigm, called response-correlated reinforcement, to the area of attitude modification. Such reinforcement has previously been shown to be effective in verbal learning. In this paradigm, reinforcement is not contingent upon the response of interest (in this case, modification of the S's attitude), but rather an incidental appropriate temporal relationship exists. Ss were 60 introductory psychology students, all of whom were told they were serving as Es. There were four groups: Ss who, as "Es," were trying to move their Ss (a confederate of the real E) to a more positive evaluation of the attitude object (labor unions) by the way they presented adjective pairs: Ss who were trying to move the other person toward a more negative evaluation: Ss who were exposed to positive movement but were told only to monitor the other person's responses, and Ss who were exposed to negative movement but were again told only to monitor with no mention's being made of their trying to exert "influence." These last two groups, of course, served as controls. The confederate responded in a systematic way, gradually moving in the desired direction on predetermined pairs (critical scales) and not moving on the remaining pairs (control scales for within-S comparisons). There were eight adjective pairs from the evaluative dimension of Osgood's semantic differential (and four "buffer" pairs from the potency dimension). Each of the pairs was presented verbally by the real S to the confederate five times in random order. Real Ss then took a written form of the differential under the guise of collecting "background information." The sessions were concluded with an interview to determine the real S's awareness. Statistical analyses showed a significant difference between the after-only attitude scores of the reinforced and non-reinforced Ss, indicating attitude modification in the former. For reinforced Ss, there was also a significant difference between critical and non-critical scales, again indicating more modification on the former. Negative evaluation between-S movement was significantly greater than positive evaluation movement. The post-experiment interview data confirmed the Ss' lack of awareness and the effectiveness of reinforcement was further reflected in their reported subjective feelings of "success" as an "E." | |
