The Effect of Pd Score on Verbal Conditioning

Abstract

Two experiments using verbal conditioning were conducted to test the assumption that High Pd delinquent. In Exp. 1, the Ss were required to combine different verbs with one of five different personal pronouns: “I”, “YOU”, “HE”, “SHE”, “THEY”. The Ss of reward condition were reinforced by the experimenter with a mild affirmatory word (“good”) at the end of the sentence the Ss constructed and the Ss of punishment condition were reinforced with a mild affirmatory word (“bad”), each time they used a pronoun which was of the highest operant level in the operant conditioning phase. The findings showed that in reward condition the performance of the conditioning trials decreased as a function of Pd score: On the other hand, in punishment condition, the higher the Pd score, the more the performance increments.

The task used in Exp. 2 was similar to one in Exp. 1. The Ss were divided into four patterns from the combination of both Pd score and heart rate level. The delinquent of the pattern of High Pd and low heart rate showed a significant performance gains. However, successful conditioning was not found in the Ss of other three patterns.

These results failed to support the assumption that learning did not occur in High Pd delinquents because of their diminished state of physiological arousal, but suggested that successful conditioning in High Pd delinquents depended upon the stimulus situations.