AFFECTIVE ASSESSMENT AND AWARENESS IN THE OPERANT CONDITIONING OF VERBAL RESPONSE
Abstract
Verbal conditioning issues are reviewed briefly with attention given to the evolution of research from operant and cognitive-mediational perspectives. The role and contribution of affective judgments is seen as of emerging importance in psychology, an importance which is understood poorly. The issue of participant awareness also is examined. An alternative theoretical position, Logical Learning Theory, is offered to provide a comprehensive framework for the study of these two interdependent topics. In contrast to Operant and Mediational theories, Logical Learning Theory postulates a central role for both affective judgments and intentional behavior. The two present studies were conducted to extend the telic formulations of Logical Learning Theory to the verbal operant conditioning paradigm. Additionally, these studies investigated whether affective judgments were a recognizable and conditionable response class. Participants rated nouns and adjectives on two occasions for both part of speech and whether they liked or disliked the words. From these ratings, idiographic word lists were constructed for each subject from the pool of reliably rated words. These words were administered in a forced-choice, expectancy baseline-conditioning trials discrimination task where participants were instructed to choose from the four different response class words on a given trial. During conditioning trials, a conditioned reinforcer was delivered depending on the condition assigned. A post-conditioning awareness interview was conducted following the conditioning trials. Results for the main hypothesis lent support for the modifiability and sensitivity of the affective dimension. Response class increases were found only for those persons judged aware of reinforcement contingencies. Furthermore, results suggested that awareness occurred more frequently for affective (liked/disliked) rather than conceptual categories (nouns/adjectives). When conceptual components were blended with affective components in Study II, persons tended to choose words on the basis of affective category. Implications of these findings are discussed and suggestions for methodological improvement and subsequent research are made.
Degree
Ph.D.
Subject Area
Psychotherapy
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