Lieberman D A, Connell G L, Moos H F
Department of Psychology, University of Stirling, Scotland, UK.
Q J Exp Psychol B. 1998 Nov;51(4):317-35. doi: 10.1080/02724995.1998.11733502.
In a previous study of reinforcement without awareness by Lieberman, Sunnucks, & Kirk (this issue), subjects were told that the experiment was on ESP; two words were presented on every trial, and their task was to choose the word the experimenter was thinking of. In fact, reinforcement was contingent on the loudness of the subjects' voices when responding. They found stronger evidence for reinforcement without awareness than in many previous studies, and they attributed their success in part to the reinforcement of a response to which subjects were unlikely to attend. To explore this factor further, we again used an ESP cover story but reinforced subjects for choosing the word in each pair that contained a double letter. We found evidence of reinforcement without awareness in three experiments and also identified two factors that influence these effects: Learning did not occur if subjects (a) were encouraged to test irrelevant hypotheses, or (b) sat in an uncomfortable chair. We speculate that learning without awareness may be more likely when subjects are relaxed and that hypothesis testing and uncomfortable chairs impair such learning because they prevent relaxation.
在利伯曼、桑纳克斯和柯克（本期）之前关于无意识强化的一项研究中，受试者被告知该实验是关于超感知觉的；每次试验会呈现两个单词，他们的任务是选择实验者所想的那个单词。实际上，强化取决于受试者回答时声音的响度。他们发现了比许多先前研究中更强的无意识强化证据，并且他们将自己的成功部分归因于对受试者不太可能注意到的一种反应的强化。为了进一步探究这个因素，我们再次使用了一个超感知觉的掩饰故事，但对选择每对中包含双字母单词的受试者给予强化。我们在三个实验中发现了无意识强化的证据，并且还确定了影响这些效应的两个因素：如果受试者（a）被鼓励去检验无关假设，或者（b）坐在不舒服的椅子上，学习就不会发生。我们推测，当受试者放松时，无意识学习可能更有可能发生，而假设检验和不舒服的椅子会损害这种学习，因为它们阻碍了放松。
