EFFECTS OF INTERTRIAL ACTIVITY AND LOCUS OF CONTROL ORIENTATION ON VERBAL OPERANT CONDITIONING

Forty-eight male undergraduates participated in an experiment designed to investigate the effects of intertrial activity and locus of control orientation (internal or external) on verbal operant conditioning (VOC). It was hypothesized that intertrial activity which required Ss to verbalize continuously during the intertrial interval would interfere with VOC, as well as reduce the frequency of post experimentally assessed awareness among Ss. Both of these hypotheses were confirmed. In addition, it was hypothesized that intertrial activity would produce greater decrements in the performance of internals than externals. Exactly the opposite pattern of findings was obtained. © 1969, Psychonomic Journals, Inc.. All rights reserved.