Studies in cognitive reverberation replications and extensions.

Abstract

The findings on cognitive reverberation reported in a previous issue of this journal were replicated and extended. Two male undergraduates, trained in hypnotic methods, participated as subjects in a series of studies employing the same salience technique, in which S first listens to a string of consonants, next engages in a filler activity, and then tells whatever consonants pop into mind. The data again yielded evidence for the existence of an autonomous reverberation process since disruptive effects occurred with the introduction, during the filler interval, of five-second pauses under hypnosis or a posthypnotic state of low mental arousal. In addition to being altered in either direction by changes in arousal level, the process was once more shown to be vulnerable to competition by the filler task itself. Duration of reverberatory action was found to vary among individuals from less than one minute up to several hours. The replicated observation of no further reduction in salience from an increase in number or length of disruptive pauses supported the two-process theory of residual network strength plus reverberation expounded earlier. Finally, the role of cognitive arousal was extended to a more complex task involving the differential manipulation of salience in two sets of stimuli presented on the same trial.