Treatments devised to investigate verbal self-control of the amount of study behavior were compared for their relative effectiveness at increasing the study of college students. 77 Ss learned under one of 5 conditions involving various combinations of self-instruction, reinforcements for self-instructions, and/or reinforcements for increased study. For all groups combined there was 61.3% increase in the amount Ss studied from wk. 1 to 3. Self-instructions alone appeared to increase effectively the amount of study (30.9%), but the condition in which reinforcement was contingent upon both self-instructions gradually to increase study and conformity to the instructions was most effective (153.6%).
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