Leonard P. Ullmann

VERBAL CONDITIONING OF COMMON ASSOCIATIONS IN LONG-TERM SCHIZOPHRENIC PATIENTS.

Abstract Disturbed association, is a common, important and possibly primary symptom in schizophrenia. 40 long-term psychotic patients, 20 experimentais and 20 controls, were administered a word association test. Responses to the first 20 words were not reinforced and used to measure operant level of common associations. With the remaining 78 stimulus words, the experimental group was reinforced by “mmh-hmm”, smile, and head nod, for responding with common associations while the control group was not. When responses to the first and last 20 stimulus words were compared, the experimental group increased and the control group decreased their use of common association. An analysis of covariance of these change scores yielded a F of 5.05, significant beyond the 0.05 level. While significant conditioning effects were obtained, there was no significant difference between the groups on changes in the Sarbin-Hardyck Stick Figure Test administered before and after the word association task. These findings augmented and were consistent with previous work in this area.

RESPONSIVITY OF PSYCHIATRIC PATIENTS TO VERBAL CONDITIONING: "SUCCESS" AND "FAILURE" CONDITIONS AND PATTERN OF REINFORCED TRIALS

A sample of 64 psychiatric patients was used to study responsiveness to minimal social reinforcement by means of operant verbal conditioning procedures. As in previous work with college students the effects of two types of situational variation were studied: pattern of reinforced trials and examiners evaluation of performance. Ss told TAT-like stories and on selected trials the use of emotional words was reinforced. Highly significant conditioning was found, indicating that psychiatric patients are responsive to minimal social reinforcement. Significant group differences were not found, however, for either the success-failure dimension of examiner evaluation of performance, or for reinforced vs extinction trials. The results for patients agree with those reported earlier for students only insofar as the initial conditioning is concerned. In general, patients show initial responsiveness to examiner reinforcement, but they are not readily influenced by situational variations occurring later in the session.

CHANGES IN PERFORMANCE AS RELATED TO VERBAL CONDITIONING OF ATTITUDES TOWARD THE EXAMINER

In social influence situations such as psychotherapy, hypnosis, and placebo, the individuals 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.

Changed Content within a Reinforced Response Class

Reinforcement and other experimental manipulations may influence the content as well as the frequency of verbal behavior. Evidence was presented from five studies (N = 283) in which emotional words, EW, were reinforced in TAT-like situations. EW used during reinforced trials were pleasanter than those used during operant trials; differential experimental manipulations led to differential pleasantness of EW; pleasantness of EW used during operant trials was significantly associated with personality test measures, particularly anxiety and hostility. The results bear on the role of reinforcement in social influencing situations and provide an additional measure of the effect of reinforcement.