Abstract
Participation in conversation in which a subject encounters disagreeing opinions is aversively motivated by the disagreement and reinforced by the opportunity for the subject to speak in reply. In an experimental conversation modeled on discrete-trials instrumental conditioning, instrumental response speeds were faster when conversation began with disagreement on every trial rather than half of the trials, as in escape-conditioning studies of intermittent shock (N = 58, p <.005).
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Denton, D. A. Drive and reinforcement analogs in conversation. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Oklahoma, 1975.
Feinberg, R. A., Weiss, R. F., Miller, F. G., Steigleder, M. K., & Lombardo, J. P. Drive as a unifying concept in learned helplessness: Theory and experiments. Unpublished manuscript, University of Oklahoma, 1976. Available from R. F. Weiss, Department of Psychology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma 73019.
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Weiss, R.F., Miller, F.G., Steigleder, M.K. et al. Drive effects on instrumental response speed induced by intermittent disagreement in conversation. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 9, 5–7 (1977). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03336911
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03336911