Vicarious verbal conditioning in a quasi-group therapy situation

Abstract

The effects of vicarious verbal reinforcement were examined in a quasigroup therapy situation. Thirty male, college-age subjects were randomly assigned to one of six groups which included combinations of observation of selective or random reinforcement with lack of awareness of responsereinforcement contingencies, awareness before, or awareness after observation of reinforcement. A verbal conditioning paradigm was used in which indirect reinforcement was provided by group observation of a model while operant and extinction levels were obtained directly and separately for each subject. Results indicated that only observation of selective reinforcement resulted in the acquisition of the critical verbal response and that awareness of the response-reinforcement contingency did not significantly affect conditioning rates. The possibility of applying these findings to therapy situations was discussed.