Roche, Barnes, & Smeets, 1997

The authors (researchers at National U of Ireland, University Coll, Cork, Ireland ) conducted four experiments examined the effect of incongruous adults. Exp 1 demonstrated that matching-to-sample test performances were determined by the training and testing to which Ss were first exposed. Exp 2 demonstrated that a critical factor involved in producing consistent control by the initial training phase was the administration of a matching-to-sample test following exposure to the initial training phase. Exp 3 attempted to gain control over persistent test performances without removing either of the test phases. It was found that once a matching-to-sample test performance had been demonstrated, it was highly resistant to change, even following repeated exposures to incongruous contingencies. Exp 4 demonstrated that preexposure to conditional discrimination or stimulus-pairing contingencies increased the sensitivity of novel matching-to-sample test performances to incongruous contingencies. These results may have implications for a behavior-analytic interpretation of attitude formation and change