Changes in Performance as Related to Verbal Conditioning of Attitudes toward the Examiner

Abstract

In social influence situations such as psychotherapy, hypnosis, and placebo, the individual's attitude toward his role of S or patient is an important variable. The 20 experimental and 19 control Ss were mothers of nursery school children who participated in this “medical research.” After completing two questionnaires, all Ss completed six dynamometer trials. A 54-item Medical Science Questionnaire (MSQ) was then administered. After 24 non-reinforced “operant” items, experimental Ss were reinforced for responses favorable to medical science, while control Ss received no reinforcement for their responses to all 54 items. After this experimental manipulation, all Ss repeated the dynamometer measure. Compared to the control group, the experimental Ss increased significantly in both their favorability of responses to medical science and dynamometer effort. The results indicate that attitudes toward medical science may be significantly influenced by verbal conditioning and that improvement of such attitudes is associated with improved performance on a task identified with and requested by the examiner.