The temporal relationship between awareness and performance in verbal conditioning.

Abstract

Differential predictions concerning the role of awareness in verbal conditioning were tested through an experimental analysis of the temporal relationship between awareness and the inception of performance gains. Female college students were reinforced for "human noun" responses in a word-naming task and Ss' awareness of this response-reinforcement contingency was assessed through ratings of "thoughts about the experiment" which each S recorded during the conditioning trials. Performance gains were found only for aware Ss. Furthermore, increments in performance first occurred on the trial block on which aware Ss first recorded their correct hypotheses (verbalized awareness). The results were interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that performance gains in verbal conditioning are consciously mediated. (23 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)