"The recognition thresholds of twenty male undergraduates were determined for eight five-letter words, approximately equal in frequency of occurrence and of apparently neutral connotation. Four of these task words were always presented to the observer following full exposure of a 'taboo' word. The remaining four were always preceded by exposure of a neutral word. Duration thresholds of the observers for the task words following critical, or taboo, words were significantly higher than their thresholds for task words following neutral words. An attempt has been made to interpret these findings in terms of reenforcement of an avoidance reaction that has generalized from the taboo to the neutral stimuli." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)