Response Intensity and Stimulus Generalization with Neutral Verbal Stimuli

Abstract

Mediated stimulus generalization was studied with words connoting animal size. Half the Ss trained on large animals and generalized to smaller animals; the other half trained on small animals and generalized to larger animals. The response alternatives were shouting and whispering; half the Ss were reinforced for shouting and the other half, for whispering. When generalizing from large to small animals, shouting yielded a steep gradient and whispering, a flat gradient of generalization. When generalizing from small to large animals, whispering yielded a steep gradient and shouting an inverse gradient of generalization. These results extend the generality of a Matching Principle: there is a strong tendency to make an intense response to stimuli of large magnitude and a moderate tendency to make a weak response to stimuli of small magnitude.