Abstract
160 Ss participated in a study employing an extension of the Solomon (1949) four-group design to investigate influences of attitude pretesting (pretested vs unpretested), treatment conditions (experimental vs control), and test length (long vs short) upon attitude responses. Two different length tests were constructed which had equal reliabilities, based on earlier research. For pretested groups t tests showed no significant differences between pretest mean scores; therefore, subsequent analyses were performed on mean posttest attitude scores. Results of a 2 × 2 × 2 analysis of variance indicated significant main effects ( p < .01) for treatment conditions and test length and a significant three-way interaction ( p < .05). A simple-effects analysis (Winer, 1962) indicated a general tendency for pretested groups responding to a short test to demonstrate inhibition of attitude change. Ss responding to the long measure demonstrated general facilitation of attitude change. Further analysis suggests that explanations in terms of commitment are not appropriate and speculations regarding the role of demand characteristics are advanced.
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