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An Experimental Investigation Of Repression Of The Auditory Perception Ofdisturbing Words As Indicated By Verbal And Electrodermal Responses
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An Experimental Investigation Of Repression Of The Auditory Perception Ofdisturbing Words As Indicated By Verbal And Electrodermal Responses
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AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF REPRESSION
OF THE AUDITORY PERCEPTION OF DISTURBING W ORDS
AS INDICATED BY VERBAL AND ELECTRODERMAL RESPONSES
bY t
Edmund C '^ N u tta ll
A D is s e r ta tio n P re sen te d to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In P a r t i a l F u lfillm e n t of the
Requirements fo r th e Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(Speech)
January 1960
UNIVERSITY O F S O U T H E R N CALIFORNIA
GRADUATE SCHOO L
UNIVERSITY PARK
LOS ANGELES 7. CALIFORNIA
This dissertation, written by
............E£Jmund...Ch3jr.l.e.a..Mu.ttall..............
under the direction of hX^...Dissertation Gom-
mittee, and approved by all its members, has
been presented to and accepted by the Graduate
School, in partial fulfillment of requirements
for the degree of
D O C T O R OF P H IL O S O P H Y
.........................
Date.................. : .. J A K n A R Y ; : a ^ J 6 Q . ; ^ . . .................
/
DISSERTATION O
Cuairman ~ ) f ]
PREFACE ;
t
S ev eral years ago, in r e p ly t o a q u e stio n posed by j
|
P ro f e s s o r Garwood, th e w r i te r designed an experim ent to I
t e s t an e f f e c t of e m o tio n a lity on a u d ito ry p e rc e p tio n . The
w r i t e r p re v io u s ly had become a c q u ain te d w ith and in te r e s te d ;
in re s e a rc h in t h i s a re a through th e e n t h u s i a s t i c expound- i
ing of Dr. Lee Edward T ra v is . The d e c is io n was reached
t h a t th e w r i t e r would execute th e i n v e s t i g a t i o n which had
been designed. P ro fe ss o r T ra v is was s e le c te d t o su p e rv ise
th e endeavor.
The experim ent involved th e measurement of e l e c t r o -
dermal re sp o n se s. The c o n s tr u c tio n of th e in s tru m e n ts ,
th e method of measuring th e re s p o n s e s , and th e system of
tra n sfo rm in g th e measurements in to m eaningful f ig u r e s r e
q u ired e x p e rt guidance. The counsel o f P ro fe s s o r G rings
re g a rd in g th e s e m a tte rs was in v a lu a b le . However, some of
the d e c is io n s were made anent th e procedures f o r measuring
th e resp o n ses w ith o u t t h i s c o n s u lta t io n . Any e r r o r s in th e ;
experim ent a re th e r e s p o n s i b i l i t y of th e i n v e s t i g a t o r . !
The p r e p a r a tio n of th e s tim u li a ls o r e q u ir e d e x p e rt j
a s s i s t a n c e . Such a id was provided by P ro fe ss o r Paul L.
P f a f f , p h o n e tic ia n , and Mr. A llen Johnson, b ro a d c a st engin
e e r , of San Diego S ta te C ollege. The w r i t e r w ishes t o ex
p ress g r a tit u d e t o each.
Two unusual events occurred w ith in the d u ra tio n of
t h i s re s e a rc h . In both in s ta n c e s , th e u n s e lf is h a d ju s t
ments made by an in d iv id u a l or in d iv id u a ls allowed the
p ro g ress of t h i s study to continue w ithout se rio u s i n t e r
ru p tio n .
The f i r s t event was the d e c isio n of P ro fe ss o r T ravis
to a l t e r the prim ary a t t e n t i o n of h is p sy ch o lo g ical know
ledge from problems of speech and h earin g to the r e l a t i o n
sh ip s w ith in and between commercial o r g a n iz a tio n s . This
d e c is io n r e s u lt e d in th e r e s ig n a tio n of Dr. T rav is from h is
p o s itio n a t the U n iv e rs ity of Southern C a lif o r n ia . At th a t
tim e, t h i s in v e s tig a tio n had been form ulated and th e r e
search was in p ro g re ss. Dr. T rav is consented to continue
h is guidance u n t i l th e e f f e c t s of h is w ithdraw al would be
le s s d is r u p tiv e to the advancement of the in v e s tig a tio n .
This r e l a t i o n s h i p remained fo r n e a rly two y e a rs , during
which th e re se a rc h was completed and th e p relim in a ry re p o rt
was w ritte n .
The r e s ig n a tio n from the chairm anship of t h i s study
by Dr. T ravis was th e second event. In order to in su re the
b e s t p o ssib le f i n a l p r e s e n ta tio n of the i n v e s tig a tio n , the
au th o r re q u e ste d t h a t P ro fesso r Garwood be appointed Chair
man, and t h a t P ro fe sso rs Grings and P erkins comprise the
rem ainder of th e committee. Each of th e se persons complied
w ith the re q u e s t.
For th e c o n s id e ra tio n and co o p e ratio n given by th e se
four in d iv id u a ls , the w rite r i s deeply g r a t e f u l .
The w r ite r wishes to express p a r t i c u l a r ap p rec iatio n j
to Dr. Lee Edward T ra v is , who su p p lied th e in fo rm atio n and I
i n s p i r a t i o n t h a t made t h i s endeavor p r o f it a b le and p le a s
an t .
This endeavor re c e iv e d th e co o p eratio n of many per- ;
sons not acknowledged above. A u th o rity or e x p e rt, se c re
ta r y or s u b je c t— the e f f o r t s of each are s in c e r e ly appre
c ia te d .
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE
Page,
i i
LIST OF TABLES
v i i
CHAPTER
THE PROBLEM 1
I I .
I I I .
Background of th e Problem
Statem ent of the Problem
L im ita tio n s of th e problem
O rg a n izatio n of th e re p o r t of the
i n v e s tig a tio n
PREVIOUS INVESTIGATIONS OF THE PROBLEM . . . 7
P ercep tu al Defense Hypothesis
Findings
Experim ental e r r o r s
Set of th e su b je c ts
Withheld responses
Subception Process Hypothesis
Findings
E rro rs
Subception E ffe c t
Findings
E rro rs
Summary
THE NET HOD . . .............................................................. 30
The Stim ulus Words
Subj e c ts
A pparatus
Experim ental S ta tio n s
S u b je c t's s t a t i o n
E x p erim e n ter's s t a t i o n
Procedure
P re lim in ary procedure
Test procedure
Procedure fo r re c o rd in g th e responses
I n v e s ti g a ti o n of Frequency and Recency of
Usage of Stim ulus Words
CHAPTER Page
IV. THE RESULTS
39
S ectio n A
S ectio n B
P e rcep tu al Defense H ypothesis
Purpose
Source
R e su lts
P ercep tu al P rocesses Hypothesis
Purpose
Source
R e su lts
Subception E ffe c t H ypothesis
Purpose
Source
A. T est of D i s t u r b a b i i i t y of Words
B. Experim ental I n s tr u c tio n s
C. T est of Frequency-Recency of Usage
Q u estio n n aire and R e su lts
D. Mean Average of S u b je c ts ’ GSR’s to
Stim ulus Words
V. SUM M ARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Summary
Conclusions
APPENDIXES 63
BIBLIOGRAPHY 76
t
LIST OF TABLES
Table
1. R atings Used to Develop Measure of Frequency-
Recency of Usage In flu e n ce on Thresholds
of N eu trai Words ..............................................................
2. Amount of C orrect R ecognition of th e Stim ulus
Words ......................................................................................
3. R atings Used to Measure Frequency-Recency of
Usage F ac to r In flu en ce on Thresholds of
D istu rb in g Words ..............................................................
4. P ercentage of P e rce p tu a l R egression fo r Each
S u b ject Per Stim ulus Word Type .............................
5. R e su lts of the A nalysis of V ariance of EDR's
to P re re c o g n itio n Exposures of th e Stim ulus
W o r d s ...................................... ...............................................
6. R e su lts of Q u estio n n aire to Determine the
Amount of D i s t u r b a b i l i t y of Words L iste d in
a C o lle g ia te D ic tio n a ry ...........................................
7. R e s u lts of the Q u estio n n aire to Determine the
Frequency of Usage of th e Stim ulus Words . .
8. Mean Average of S u b je c ts ' GSR's to Stim ulus
Words ......................................................................................
vii
CHAPTER I
THE PROBLEM
Background of th e Problem
According to F e n ic h e l: "Whenever a stim ulus gives
r i s e to p a in fu l f e e l in g s , a tendency i s developed . . . to
ward o ff th e s tim u lu s ." (21:131) The mechanism which a l
lows p u rp o sefu l f o r g e ttin g or not becoming aware of s tim u li
i s c a lle d "re p re ssio n " (21:148). A uditory p e rc e p tu a l r e
p re ssio n may extend from tem porary and lim ite d use to com
p le te deafness v ia n eg ativ e h a llu c in a tio n s (21:177; 21:
226).
W ithin re c e n t y e a rs , attem p ts have been made to d is
cover th e e f f e c t s upon p e rc e p tu a l ease and accuracy of the
v a rio u s a f f e c t iv e q u a l i t i e s of s ti m u li. Some of th e inves
t i g a t i o n s , although using the v is u a l m odality, have had
d i r e c t a p p l ic a tio n t o th e p sy ch o an aly tic th e o ry d e sc rib ed
above (9, 33).
Three se p a ra te hypotheses have been used t o t e s t the
v a l i d i t y of th e p e rc e p tu a l r e p r e s s io n th e o ry . The most
commonly employed h y p o th e sis i s r e f e r r e d to as th e "percep
t u a l defense" h y p o th e sis (54:152). P e rc e p tu a l defense
would be dem onstrated i f the th re s h o ld s of r e c o g n itio n f o r
d is tu r b in g s tim u li are e le v a te d from th e r e c o g n itio n
th re s h o ld s fo r n e u tra l s tim u li. The "subception process"
h y p o th esis (54:152) i s another t h a t has been employed.
The subception process is in d ic a te d i f th e in c o r r e c t
guesses of d is tu rb in g s tim u li a t p re re c o g n itio n exposures
are le s s ac c u rate than th e in c o r r e c t guesses of n e u tra l
s tim u li a t p re re c o g n itio n exposures. The t h i r d h y p o th esis
i s used to determ ine i f a p e rc e iv e r d isc e rn s between d is
tu rb in g and n e u tra l s tim u li a t p re re c o g n itio n exposures.
The h y p o th esis is c a lle d the "subception e f f e c t " h y p o th esis
(29:99; 39:1 2 1 ). Subception e f f e c t would r e s u l t in higher
e le c tro d e rm a l responses (EDR's) to d is tu rb in g s tim u li a t
p re re c o g n itio n exposures than to n e u tra l s tim u li a t pre
re c o g n itio n exposures.
Although most experim ents designed to t e s t percep
t u a l r e p re s s io n are lim ite d to a t e s t of the p e rc e p tu a l
defense h y p o th e sis, t h i s i s not because p e rc e p tu a l defense
i s u n iv e r s a lly conceived to be th e key iss u e in th e prob-
lem. Anna Freud m aintains t h a t non-psychotic s u b je c ts w i l l
not employ r e a c tio n s which could be i n te r p r e t e d as percep
t u a l defense (24:85-86).
Statem ent of th e Problem
The purpose of t h i s study was to t e s t the tendency
to re p re s s d is tu rb in g p erce p tio n s by (1) a comparison of
the th re s h o ld s fo r c o rre c t re c o g n itio n of d is tu rb in g words
w ith th o se of n e u tr a l words, (2) a comparison of th e
accuracy of in c o r r e c t guesses a t p re re c o g n itio n exposures
of d is tu rb in g words w ith t h a t of n e u tra l words, and (3) a
comparison of th e e le c tro d e rm a l responses to p re re c o g n itio n
exposures of d is tu rb in g words w ith those of n e u tra l words.
I f a tendency to re p re s s d is tu rb in g p e rc e p tio n s ex
i s t s , th en one or more of the follow ing hypotheses should
be v e r i f i e d :
1. The th re s h o ld s fo r th e c o rre c t re c o g n itio n of
d is tu rb in g words are h ig h e r th a n th e c o r r e c t
re c o g n itio n th re s h o ld s of n e u tra l words.
2. The in c o r r e c t guesses of d is tu rb in g words a t
p re re c o g n itio n exposures are le s s accurate^- than
th e in c o r r e c t guesses of n e u tra l words a t pre
re c o g n itio n exposures.
3. The e le c tro d e rm a l responses to d is tu rb in g words
a t p re re c o g n itio n exposures are g r e a t e r th a n the
e le c tro d e rm a l resp o n ses to n e u tra l words a t
p re re c o g n itio n exposures.
L im ita tio n s of the problem
Not a l l asp e c ts of th e r e l a t i o n s h i p between emotion
and p e rc e p tio n , or any of the f a c e ts of th e in flu e n c e of
emotions on memory, are considered germane to t h i s study.
Excluded from the in v e s tig a tio n are the e f f e c t s of
^•The sta n d ard devised to measure p re re c o g n itio n per
c e p tu a l accuracy is d e scrib ed on pages 48-49.
a tendency toward h y s t e r i c a l in tr o v e r s io n on p e rc e p tio n .
H y s te ric a l in tr o v e r s io n (21:226) is caused by th e observ
e r ' s la c k of i n t e r e s t in th e s tim u li and i s not considered
to be p a r t of th e concept of n egative h a llu c i n a tio n s . In
form ation re g ard in g the e f f e c t s of t h i s type of p e rc e p tu a l
d istu rb a n c e can be found in r e c e n t l i t e r a t u r e (1; 54; 58).
Another a sp e c t of r e p re s s iv e te n d en c ie s which has
re c e iv e d the a t t e n t i o n of some in v e s tig a to r s i s i t s e f f e c t
on memory (2; 17; 32 ). This f a c e t of. the study of r e
p re s s io n is not considered to be w ith in th e scope of t h i s
in v e s tig a tio n .
The scope of th e study in c lu d e s r e s u l t s of percep
t u a l re p r e s s io n on meaningful words only. The d e f i n i t i o n
of "meaningful words" included in v e s tig a tio n s of nonsense
s y ll a b le s when th ey had become meaningful to th e s u b je c ts
through c o n d itio n in g . S tu d ie s (8; 19; 50) which have been
done on th e p e rc e p tio n of s tim u li o ther th a n meaningful
words ( e . g . , p i c t u r e s ) are excluded.
The range of th e in v e s t i g a t i o n does not include
resp o n ses of s u b je c ts who were em o tio n ally d is tu rb e d ,
e i t h e r by an intended fu n c tio n of the experiment (47; 53;
68) or by t h e i r in adequacies to a d ju s t to th e demands of
t h e i r environm ents (34; 38; 45) p r io r to th e t e s t of per
c e p tio n . However, experim ents employing th e se ty p es of
s u b je c ts were analyzed from th e a s p e c t of experim ental
methods.
The in v e s tig a tio n i s designed to study e f f e c t s of
p e rc e p tu a l r e p r e s s io n on a u d ito ry p e rc e p tio n as m anifested
through EDR's and v e rb a l r e p o r ts of th e s u b je c ts . No other
responses were reco rd ed . Excluded from the range of t h i s
study i s a l l s p e c u la tio n re g a rd in g n e u ro -p h y sio lo g ic a l
phenomena which may have accompanied th e process of re p r e s
sio n o th e r than th e EDR's.
O rg a n iza tio n of the r e p o r t of
t'he Tnve stiq a tT o n
This i n v e s tig a tio n i s re p o rte d in f iv e c h a p te rs .
T heir purposes are summarized in the follow ing paragraphs.
Chapter I has two purposes. A p re s e n ta tio n of the
problem i s th e prim ary goal; th e second purpose i s t o pro
vide o r i e n t a t i o n a l in fo rm atio n which w i l l f a c i l i t a t e an
exam ination of t h i s study.
The purpose of Chapter I I i s to examine previous
i n v e s tig a tio n s of th e problem. The problem envelopes th re e
a rea s which can be t e s t e d in d e p en d en tly . Rrevious t e s t s
a re se p a ra te d according to which iss u e each was designed to
study.
The prim ary fu n c tio n of. t h i s d i s s e r t a t i o n i s to re
p o rt th e fin d in g s a t t a i n e d by an o r ig in a l experim ental t e s t
of th e f a c t o r s of the problem. Chapter I I I was a d e t a il e d
account of th e experim ental method.
Chapter IV i s designed to p re se n t data provided by
th e experim ent. S e c tio n A p re s e n ts a novel instrum ent used
to measure the frequency and recency of word usage. The
numerous hypotheses t e s t e d by th e experim ent were p resen ted
s e p a ra te ly w ith a p p ro p ria te d ata in S ectio n B. Q u a lif ic a
tio n s reg ard in g th e v a l i d i t y of th e data are a ls o pre
se n te d .
The l a s t ch a p ter has th r e e g o a ls. The f i r s t pur
pose i s to provide a summary of th e problem and th e e x p e ri
ment which had t e s t e d th e problem. The second purpose i s
to p rese n t th e conclusions drawn by a study of th e appro
p r i a t e data fo r each of the hypotheses. The f i n a l goal of
th e ch ap ter i s to re co rd the in fe re n c e s of each of the area s
of th e problem.
CHAPTER II
PREVIOUS INVESTIGATIONS OF
THE PROBLEM
The fu n c tio n of t h i s ch ap ter i s to explore previous
in v e s tig a tio n s of th e problem. This p a r t i c u l a r study was
not concerned w ith th e h is t o r y of th e ex p erim en tatio n of
th e problem. H i s t o r i c a l s tu d ie s have been made p rev io u sly
(3; 49; 51). E rro rs in procedures made by experim enters
were considered im portant because th e y would a f f e c t fu tu re
in v e s tig a tio n s in t h i s a re a . The o rg a n iz a tio n of th e chap
t e r i s based on th e p r e s e n ta tio n of th e problem a re a s and
th e attem p ts to solve them. For each s p e c if ic e r r o r in ex
p erim e n tal procedure, an a p p ro p ria te number of i l l u s t r a t i v e
cases are c ite d to allow th e re a d e r a source he can re -e x
amine i f he so d e s ir e s . R eferences do not include a l l of
th e a p p ro p ria te cases p u b lish ed .
P e rce p tu a l Defense Hypothesis
More th a n a score of experim ents have been d i r e c t l y
r e l a t e d to th e p e rc e p tu a l defense h y p o th e sis. The know
ledge affo rd e d by th e se experim ents has been supplemented
by the c r i t i c a l an a ly se s and r e - a n a ly s e s of many e x p e rts .
N otw ithstanding th e e f f o r t s of th e se a u t h o r i t i e s t o t e s t
the h y p o th esis of p e rc e p tu a l d efen se, t h e i r fin d in g s were
in c o n c lu s iv e .
Findings
Findings of th e t e s t e r s o f .th e em otional e f f e c t s on
p e rc e p tu a l f a c i l i t y vary e x te n s iv e ly . Some experim enters
found th e p e rc e p tu a l th re s h o ld s of d is tu rb in g words eleva
te d from th o se of n e u tra l words (5; 12; 14); t h i s was r e
fe rre d to as p e rc e p tu a l d efen se. Other t e s t e r s m aintained
t h a t , on th e c o n tra ry , th e th re s h o ld s fo r d is tu rb in g words
were lowered (52; 60); t h i s was c a lle d p e rc e p tu a l v i g i
lan ce. A review of the "fin d in g s" of re s e a rc h e rs in t h i s
area o ffe re d no conclusion a c ce p tab le to a l l .
However, the e f f o r t s had not been f r u i t l e s s . As a
r e s u l t of the i n v e s tig a tio n s , e r r o r s in experim ental method
became a p p a re n t, extraneous v a r ia b le s were m anifested, and
th e need f o r novel instrum ents was in d ic a te d .
Experim ental e r r o r s
S e le c tio n of th e stim ulus
v a r ia b le
One p o ssib le reason fo r in c o n s is te n t fin d in g s lay in
th e v a rie d methods used to s e le c t the independent v a r ia b le .
In order to t e s t the p e rce p tu a l defense h y p o th e sis, the
dependent v a ria b le has to be proved to have d is tu rb in g
c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s g r e a te r th an those of the independent v a r i
a b le . Insomuch as f a c to r s d escrib e d below o th e r than
p e rc e p tu a l defense may cause e le v a te d th re s h o ld s , the f a c t
t h a t limens are h ig h er does not prove t h a t p e rc e p tu a l de
fense has occu rred . T h erefo re, one m ethodological re q u i
s i t e fo r t e s t i n g p e rc e p tu a l defense is th e measurement of
em otional resp o n ses to th e s tim u li w ith an instrum ent inde
pendent from t h a t which determ ines th e p e rc e p tu a l limens
(18:176). Many experim enters did not meet t h i s standard
but merely assumed the d is tu rb in g q u a lity of th e words t h a t
th ey employed as the t e s t v a r ia b le (6; 15; 34; 36; 52; 57).
Some in v e s tig a to r s had decided t h a t r a th e r than
measure th e u n p leasan t nature of th e proposed dependent
v a ria b le s th ey would c re a te a d is tu rb in g asp ect of c e r t a i n
words by a s s o c ia tin g them w ith f a i l u r e p r io r to the t e s t i n g
of the th re s h o ld s (20; 60). By a d m in iste rin g anagram
t e s t s , some of which were im possible to complete, th e asso
c i a t i o n w ith f a i l u r e reg ard in g th e incom pleted words would
a f f e c t a l a t e r p e rc e p tu a l t e s t of them as compared with the
p e rc e p tio n of th e words which were s u c c e s s fu lly m anipulated
in th e t e s t . Such a method, b esid es the f a c t t h a t a meas
ure independent of the p e rc e p tu a l th re s h o ld s i s not used,
c o n tain s s e v e ra l e r r o r s . There is ample evidence t h a t the
h ig h e r the value a su b je c t puts on a stim ulus the more
e a s i l y i t i s perceived (42; 54; 55 ). The experim enter may
be in tro d u c in g a v a ria b le based upon th e s u b j e c t 's values
in to the " n e u tra l" words. Thus th e independent v a ria b le
stim ulus may be more e a s i l y recognized because of th e
s u b j e c t 's high value of i t due to i t s a s s o c ia tio n w ith h is
success during the anagram t e s t . I f t h i s were the case,
then any d iffe re n c e between the re c o g n itio n th re s h o ld s of
th e se words and th o se of the words a s s o c ia te d w ith f a i l u r e
may be a t l e a s t p a r t i a l l y due to the s u b j e c t 's v ig ila n c e to
th e high value " n e u t r a l ” words. Another f a c t o r which may
p o ssib ly in v a lid a te such te ch n iq u es is th e time allowed for
th e s u b je c ts to a tte n d th e f a i l u r e s may be le s s than th a t
of the su c cesses. S tu d ie s have dem onstrated t h a t the
amount of p r io r exposure to a word w ill a f f e c t th e reco g n i
t i o n th re s h o ld of i t (30; 59).
Another q u estio n ab le p r a c tic e is th e use of a de
pendent v a r ia b le q u a l i f i e r which could be in flu en c ed by
w ithheld resp o n se s. Recent in v e s tig a tio n s dem onstrated
t h a t many s u b je c ts w ithheld responses when th e re was a
q u estio n of s o c ia l p ro p rie ty involved (6; 66). The te n
dency on the p a rt of th e su b je c ts to w ithhold honest r e
p lie s to s o c ia ll y unacceptable words in t e s t s of p erc e p tio n
could a ls o in flu en c e p e r s o n a lity t e s t s which re q u ire honest
v e rb a l resp o n se s. Such in stru m en ts as sentence-com pletion
t e s t s and Thematic A pperception T ests record not only what
th e su b je c t has re p re s s e d but a ls o what he may co n sid er but
w ithhold from r e p o r tin g . Some in v e s t i g a t o r s attem pted to
prove the d is tu rb in g tone of th e s tim u li by employing t h i s
type of d ev ice. One a u th o r ity (13) used the Thematic
A pperception T est to determ ine s e n s itiv e p sy ch o lo g ical
a re a s of the s u b je c ts . O thers (38:474) u t i l i z e d a sentence
com pletion t e s t , devised by them selves, t o determ ine the
boundaries of s u b je c ts ' re p re sse d a r e a s . Word a s s o c ia tio n
t e s t s have been employed in se v e ra l in v e s tig a tio n s (11:70;
16:301; 19).
The use of word a s s o c ia tio n t e s t s has the a d d itio n a l
disadvantage of the in c lu s io n of th e frequency-recency fa c
t o r . The f a c t t h a t frequency and recency of word usage
a f f e c t s the p e rc e p tu a l th re s h o ld s of th e words has been
e s ta b lis h e d (30; 59). At a much e a r l i e r d a te , th e same
frequency-recency f a c t o r had been proven to a f f e c t th e r e
a c tio n time t e s t s (67:45), However, some in v e s tig a to r s
attem pted to prove the d is tu rb in g nature of the dependent
v a ria b le s by showing the c o r r e la tio n between e le v a te d per
c e p tu a l th re s h o ld s and word a s s o c ia tio n r e a c tio n tim es.
Another device employed to dem onstrate a d iffe re n c e
between the em otional r e a c tio n s to the dependent and inde
pendent v a r ia b le s is the measurement of e le c tro d e rm a l r e
sponses (4; 4 6 ). The use of EER's posed an i n t e r e s t i n g
q u estio n : Do e le c tro d e rm a l responses measure the same as
pect of the v a s t area of human emotions as is measured by
v e rb a l response? McCurdy (40) had b u i l t an im pressive a f
firm a tiv e re p ly on the b a s is of the data a v a ila b le . How
ev e r, he adm itted t h a t t h i s was not a p o p u larly accepted
p o in t of view (40:322).
12
C ontrol of th e extraneous
f a c to r s which in flu e n c e th e
data
Frequency and recency of u sa g e. One v a r ia b le known ;
to a f f e c t p e rc e p tu a l th re s h o ld s f o r a word, as mentioned
above, was the frequency w ith which th e observer had been
p re v io u sly exposed to th e word. Howes and Solomon (30) had
found t h a t ta c h is to s c o p ic d u ra tio n th re s h o ld s vary in v e rse
ly w ith t h e i r r e l a t i v e frequency of usage as determ ined by
the Thorndike-Lorge (62) word counts, Solomon and Postman
v e r i f i e d the e f f e c tiv e n e s s of the p rio r-fre q u e n c y -o f-e x p o -
sure v a ria b le (59). By employing nonsense s y l l a b l e s , they
determined the exact number of p r io r exposures to th e word
fo r each s u b je c t. P revious exposures and the d u ra tio n
th re s h o ld t e s t s were made w ith a ta c h is t o s c o p e . R e su lts of
t h i s i n v e s tig a tio n a ls o dem onstrated t h a t re c o g n itio n
th re s h o ld s vary in v e rs e ly w ith the number of previous ex
posures to the stim u lu s.
Most in v e s tig a to r s have e rre d in using one or the
o th er of two f a u lty methods of c o n tro llin g the frequency of
the p rio r-e x p o su re f a c t o r :
1. Some have assumed the r e l a t i v e frequency with
which t h e i r s u b je c ts have been p rev io u sly ex
posed to th e s tim u li.
2. O thers have ap p lie d th e Thorndike-Lorge word
counts (62) as a measure of th e frequency of
usage of s o c ia lly -u n a c c e p ta b le terms as r e l a t e d
to the frequency of usage fo r s o c ia lly -a c c e p t-
able words.
McGinnies (46) was one in v e s tig a to r who employed the
f i r s t type of e r r o r in g arn erin g d a ta . Other a u t h o r i t i e s
(31:230) promptly in d ic a te d th e mistake by d ir e c tio n a t t e n
t i o n to th e f a c t t h a t the experim enter " a s s e r t s , by im pli
c a tio n , t h a t our co n v ersatio n s are as o fte n adorned by
’r a p e d , ’ ’w hore,' ’p e n i s , ’ and ’b i t c h ’ as by ’c h i l d , '
' c l e a r , ' 'd a n c e ,1 and 'm u s ic .'" McGinnies was not the only
in v e s tig a to r who has had h is p ro g ress impeded by t h i s e r r o r
of method. Others have re p e a te d the mistake of assuming
the frequency w ith which t h e i r s u b je c ts have been exposed
to c e r t a i n words (4; 5; 11; 16; 34).
The second type of erroneous method was to determ ine
th e frequency of usage of taboo words by employing the
Thorndike-Lorge word counts. An a n a ly s is of th e Thorndike-
Lorge word counts supports the n o tio n t h a t they are inade
quate fo r the purpose of determ ining the usage of taboo
words. The primary fu n c tio n of th e Thorndike-Lorge word
counts is to aid te a c h e rs in s e le c tin g th e words which w i l l
b e n e fit t h e i r stu d e n ts the most (6 2 :x ). The words l i s t e d
in the T eacher’ s Workbook of 30,000 Words c o n s is t of words
accumulated from four se p arate counts:
1. The Thorndike g en e ra l count of 1931,
2. The Lorge magazine count,
14 '
3. The Thorndike count of 120 ju v e n ile books,
4. The Lorge-Thorndike semantic count.
The f i r s t of th e se counts, done in 1931, emphasized
the words which appeared in re a d e rs , tex tb o o k s, th e B ib le,
and E n g lish C la s s ic s (62). The Lorge magazine count in
cluded words from each of the fo llo w in g : Saturday Evening
P o s t, Woman's Home Companion, L ad ies' Home J o u r n a l, True
S to r y , and the R e ad e r's D igest (62:252). The t h i r d count
i s s e lf- e x p la n a to ry . The l a s t one was done from m isc ella n
eous read in g s of ju v e n ile s and a d u lts .
The employment of the Thorndike-Lorge counts to de
term ine th e r e l a t i v e frequency of s o c ia lly -ta b o o words
appears to be a q u estio n ab le p r a c t ic e . McGinnies (44:239)
has made p r o te s t of the "pious b e l i e f t h a t th e communicative
symbols employed v e rb a lly by undergraduates r e f l e c t only
such l i t e r a r y in flu e n c e s as 'B lack B e a u ty ,1 'L i t t l e Women,'
and 'L a d ie s ' Home J o u r n a l . 1" Lazarus (37:397) a ls o has pro
claim ed th e inadequacies of th e Thorndike-Lorge word counts
as a measure of the frequency of usage of a l l words. Al
though, in a t l e a s t one study (31:231) the counts of only
th e second and fo u rth c a te g o rie s were used, even w ith the
e x c lu sio n of the o th er two, i t was considered a dubious
measure of th e vocabulary of young a d u lt males. Many inves
t i g a t o r s had u t i l i z e d the Thorndike-Lorge word counts a l le g
ed ly to measure th e frequency of p r io r exposures to the
s tim u li (13; 16; 27; 31; 36; 52).
A ll of th e previous in v e s tig a tio n s , w ith one excep
tio n , which involved the u t i l i z a t i o n of taboo words fo r the
dependent v a r ia b le , have committed e i t h e r the e r r o r of as
suming the frequency of usage of th e words or have made the
m istake of e v a lu a tin g t h e i r frequency of usage by employing
the Thorndike-Lorge word counts. By exposing the su b je c ts
to the words which were l a t e r used in the experim ent imme
d i a t e l y preceding the t e s t , the in v e s tig a to r s in one study
(14:180) reasoned t h a t th e exposures of each word had been
c o n tr o lle d . The assum ption was made t h a t th e number of
tim es t h a t th e s u b je c ts had been exposed to th e word pre
ceding the h a lf-h o u r before the experim ent would not a f f e c t
t h e i r re c o g n itio n of i t . Such an assumption has no em piri
c a l support.
An a n a ly s is of the previous s tu d ie s dem onstrated the
need fo r an instrum ent t o e s t a b l i s h r e l a t i v e fre q u en cies
w ith which the s u b je c ts had been p re v io u sly exposed to the
s ti m u li, in c lu d in g s o c ia lly -ta b o o words. Although Lazarus
has ad e q u ate ly dem onstrated the n e c e s s ity of a new device
(37:397), no such measure had been intro d u ced .
Set of th e s u b je c ts
Another problem co n fro n tin g in v e s tig a to r s of percep
t u a l defense i s th e s u b j e c t 's s e t . Harriman (28:305) de
fin e s "se t" as "a temporary c o n d itio n which fav o rs the
s e le c tio n of certa-in s tim u li or f a c i l i t a t e s a p a r t i c u l a r
type of re sp o n se ." Woodworth and Schlosberg (67:830) ex
p la in t h a t s e t has not only a f a c i l i t a t i v e e f f e c t on th a t
which the su b je c t i s prepared to perceive but i t a ls o tends
I I
to i n h i b i t any competing s tim u li. The c o n te n tio n has been
p resen ted (31:232) t h a t the atmosphere of a s c i e n t i f i c re
s p e c t a b i l i t y which envelopes an experim ent would cause a
se t w ith in the s u b je c t favoring only s o c ia lly approved
words and would i n t e r f e r e w ith th e p e rce p tio n of taboo
words. Experim ental r e s u l t s on the a b i l i t y of the ex p e ri
mental aura to e s t a b l i s h a s e t which i n t e r f e r e s w ith the
p e rce p tio n of s o c ia lly -ta b o o words were in c o n c lu siv e .
A ronfreed, Messick, and Diggory (4) informed h a l f t h e i r
s u b je c ts t h a t unacceptable words would occur in th e ex p e ri
ment (4:520). The s tim u li c o n s is te d of p le a sa n t words,
n e u tra l words, and unpleasant words (4:519-20). EDR's were
recorded to prove t h a t the u n p leasan t words e l i c i t e d emo
t i o n a l resp o n ses. - R e su lts in d ic a te d th a t the r e c o g n itio n
tim es were independent of the s u b j e c t 's s e t (4:524). B it-
terman and K niffen (6 ), discovered a convincing in d ic a to r
supporting the n o tio n t h a t experim ental atmosphere does
cause a s e t . The th re s h o ld s of th e taboo words progres
s iv e ly lowered w ith in th e t e s t of each su b je c t (6:250).
^The d iffe re n c e between p e rc e p tu a l in te rf e r e n c e
caused by a s e t and t h a t caused by p e rc e p tu a l defense l i e s
in th e f a c t t h a t the e f f e c t s of a s e t are tem porary. I f
p e rc e p tu a l defense e x i s t s , i t would be of a permanent
n a tu r e .
The decrease in d ic a te s th e tem porary nature of the percep
t u a l in te r f e r e n c e which i s ty p i c a l of a s e t . F u rth e r sup
p o rt of the n o tio n t h a t experim ental s i t u a t i o n s cause a s e t j
i
which opposes th e p e rc e p tio n of s o c ia lly -ta b o o words has
been provided by o th er experim ents (22; 23; 36; 52).
The d i f f i c u l t y of e v a lu a tin g the s tr e n g th of a s e t
caused by the atmosphere t h a t surrounds the experim ental
s i t u a t i o n l i e s in th e d iffe re n c e between the c o n d itio n s of
se p a ra te experim ents. No two experim ental s i t u a t i o n s are
i d e n t i c a l . P o ssib ly th e same experim ental co n d itio n s are
perceived d i f f e r e n t l y by se p a ra te s u b je c ts . N e v e rth e less,
one cannot dism iss t h i s concept as one a u th o r ity (18:180)
has w ith th e tru e but i r r e l e v a n t statem ent t h a t "the con
cept of s e t has shown i t s e l f in the h is t o r y of psychology
to be both broad and ambiguous enough to hide many impor
t a n t problem s."
There are c e r t a i n p re c a u tio n a ry methods to minimize
the s e t t i n g of the s u b je c t in such a manner as to abnormally
f a c i l i t a t e or i n t e r f e r e w ith the r e c o g n itio n of taboo words.
The e x p e rts (31:232) who were th e f i r s t t o suggest the pos
s i b i l i t y of a s e t u n in te n tio n a lly induced by the co n d itio n s
of th e experim ent m aintain t h a t th e in h ib i to r y e f f e c t of
such a s e t should be reduced by using experim enters and
s u b je c ts of th e same sex, encouraging in f o rm a lity , and us
ing o th er te ch n iq u es of a n o n - r e s t r i c t i v e n a tu re .
j
There were a ls o reasons to b e lie v e t h a t a tw en ty -fo u r hour
re c e s s between p o rtio n s of a t e s t would g r e a tly dim inish or
d e stro y any se t which e x is te d a t th e beginning of the ex
perim ent (67:838). Although th e concept i s broad and am
biguous, th e re are d e f i n i t e measures t h a t can be ta k en to
reduce the e f f e c t s of a s e t .
I f the i n v e s tig a to r had not considered s e t as a
v a r ia b le im portant enough to w arran t a mention in the pre
s e n ta tio n , then the w r ite r assumed t h a t th e i n v e s tig a to r
had not tak en any p re c a u tio n s to d e te r a s e t . I f t h i s as
sumption is c o r r e c t, the s tu d ie s executed by numerous re
se a rc h ers were in v a lid (11; 13; 16; 34; 38; 46 ).
Withheld responses
A u th o r itie s (31:231) had mentioned t h a t e lev a ted
th re s h o ld s fo r taboo words may be the r e s u l t of the sub
j e c t ' s h e s ita n c y to r e p o r t such words even when c o r r e c tly
perceiv ed . The c o n te n tio n was p ro ffe re d t h a t the s u b je c ts
would v io la te th e in s t r u c t i o n s of the experim ent fo r the
sake of p ro p rie ty . Since the proposal of th e p o s s i b i l i t y
of t h i s v a r ia b le , two in v e s tig a tio n s (6; 66) r e p o r t th a t
in te r r o g a t io n of th e su b je c ts a f t e r th e t e s t dem onstrated
t h a t honest responses had been w ith h e ld .
A u th o r itie s (31:232) had expressed the opinion t h a t
p re c a u tio n a ry measures could be taken to reduce th e e f f e c t
of w ithheld resp o n se s. These measures p e rta in e d to th e age
and a t t i t u d e s of th e experim enter and the g e n e ra l atmos
phere in which the t e s t took p la c e . I n te r r o g a tio n of the
s u b je c ts during and a f t e r the t e s t had proven to be a suc
c e s s f u l method as in d ic a te d above.
Whether or not previous in v e s tig a to r s had attem pted
to c o n tro l, or in a d v e r te n tly minimized, the e f f e c t of w ith
held responses is im possible to d e te c t. The same assump
ti o n i s made here t h a t was made in re g ard to c o n tro llin g
e f f e c t s of the s u b j e c t 's s e t : u n le ss otherw ise s ta te d in
the r e p o r t of th e experim ent, the assum ption is made t h a t
the experim enter had not c o n tro lle d the e f f e c t s of w ith
held resp o n se s. Samples of th e type of re s e a rc h in which
t h i s v a r ia b le i s ignored was provided by many in v e s tig a to r s
(11; 16; 46 ).
Subception Process Hypothesis
Although many experim enters had tu rn e d t h e i r a t t e n
ti o n t o in v e s tig a tio n s of e f f e c t s of e m o tio n a lity on per
c e p tu a l lim ens, only one had stu d ie d th e same e f f e c t on the
process of a t t a i n i n g complete re c o g n itio n of a stim ulus
(46). U n til r e c e n tly p e rc e p tio n commonly had been consid
ered to be an a ll- o r - n o n e pro cess: an o bserver, r e s t r i c t e d
to one response per stim u lu s, e i t h e r re p o rte d th e stim ulus
c o r r e c tly or in c o r r e c tly . Within th e l a s t few y e a rs ,
however, in v e s tig a tio n s (10; 25; 48) have re v e a le d t h a t ,
when th e method of ascending lim its is employed, observers
recognize p a r t s , or b i t s , of the stim ulus a t p re - th re s h o ld j
exposures. With each ascended exposure, the observer is i
able to recognize more " b its " of the stim ulus u n t i l enough 1
i
j
in fo rm atio n has been obtained f o r c o rre c t i d e n t i f i c a t i o n .
I
The d iscovery has made a v a ila b le a means of in v e s tig a tin g
the process which lead s to the c o r r e c t i d e n t i f i c a t i o n of
s tim u li. Although no s ta n d a rd iz a tio n of the normal processj
has been made, a d is r u p tio n in the-norm al process towards
re c o g n itio n by th e s u b je c ts was b eliev e d to be d e te c ta b le .
One attem pt to d isc o v er th e m a n ife sta tio n s of such a d is
ru p tio n has been made. The abnorm ality in the processes
leading to re c o g n itio n has been r e f e r r e d to as the sub-
c e p tio n process (29:99).
Findings
McGinnies compared s u b je c ts ' su b lim in al c o n je c tu re s
of seven taboo words w ith the guesses e l i c i t e d by eleven
>
n e u tr a l words (46:248). S tim u li were p resen ted by ta c h i s -
to sc o p e . P re -re c o g n itio n guesses were each assig n ed to one
of fo u r c a te g o r ie s (46:248);
1. S t r u c t u r a l l y s im ila r , e . g . , tr a c e fo r tr a d e ,
whose fo r whore,
2. S t r u c t u r a l l y u n lik e , e . g . , roared f o r b e l ly ,
id e a l fo r g la s s ,
3. Nonsense, e . g . , e g try , widge,
4 . P a r t, f r a c t i o n a l hypotheses which c o n s is te d of
any d isconnected group of l e t t e r s .
A Chi square t e s t of independence between th e type
of response and whether the stim ulus was taboo or n e u tra l
in d ic a te d a r e l a t i o n s h i p s i g n i f i c a n t below the one per cent
le v e l of confidence. S u b jec ts had made p ro p o rtio n a te ly
more " sim ila r" and "p a rt" types of response to the n e u tra l
words and p ro p o rtio n a te ly more "unlike" and "nonsense" re
p o rts to the taboo words (46:248).
E rro rs
The c a te g o rie s in to which in c o rr e c t p re re c o g n itio n
guesses were placed were designed fo r guesses to v is u a l
s tim u li. Whether such c a te g o rie s would provide a s u ita b le
d iv is io n of the p re re c o g n itio n hypotheses of a u d ito ry stim
u l i was q u e s tio n a b le . No in v e s tig a tio n s had been designed
to study in c o r r e c t hypotheses of a u r a lly p resen ted s tim u li
and th e re was no support fo r th e notio n t h a t nonsense re
p lie s or f r a c t i o n a l hypotheses to a u d ito ry s tim u li would be
of s u f f i c i e n t q u a n tity to allow a thorough a n a ly s is . The
system seemed lim ite d in i t s p o ssib le use by o th e rs but was
not erroneous.
The mistake made in g ath erin g th e se data was the as
sumption t h a t the th re s h o ld s e s ta b lis h e d f o r the stim ulus
words were v a l id . I f the c r iti c is m s of the study are cor
r e c t , th e n th e th re s h o ld s fo r th e taboo words were abnor
mally e le v a te d due to (1) the s e t of th e s u b je c ts which
22'
would i n t e r f e r e w ith th e r e c o g n itio n of th e words (31:232),,
or (2) w ithhold responses when th e words were perceived
(31:231). P re re c o g n itio n guesses would be more numerous
i
i
than i f th e se extraneous v a r ia b le s had not postponed cor
r e c t re c o g n itio n or r e p o r t of th e words. The e x tra guesses
could be expected to be th e r e s u l t of confusion, in the
case of the s e t v a r ia b le , or d ec e p tio n , in th e case of th e
w ithheld response f a c t o r . In e i t h e r ca se, nonsense or
f r a c t i o n a l r e p l i e s could be expected.
Subception E ffe c t
A fte r some in v e s tig a tio n s had in d ic a te d t h a t ob
se rv e rs may defend them selves from p a in fu l s tim u li through
p e rc e p tu a l d efen se, McGinnies r a is e d th e qu estio n of how a
p e rc e iv e r d is c e rn s th e th r e a te n in g c h a ra c te r of a stim ulus
previous to becoming conscious of i t (46:244). Although he
was aware t h i s qu estio n could be answered only w ith more
knowledge of th e n eu ro -p h y sio lo g ic a l processes underlying
p e rc e p tu a l resp o n se, he b e lie v e d t h a t the d e te c tio n of any
one a sp e c t of p h y sio lo g ic a l r e a c tio n accompanying percep
t u a l behavior would be a s i g n i f i c a n t c o n trib u tio n to the
knowledge of th e p ro cesses by which p e rc e p tu a l defense was
a f f e c te d (46:245). Four experim ents (4; 39; 41; 4 6 ), de
signed to in v e s tig a te autonomic d is c rim in a tio n p r io r to
conscious awareness have been r e p o rte d . One (41) re p o rte d
was a p relim in ary r e p o r t. The data p rese n ted in t h a t study
23'
were included in the f i n a l r e p o r t of th e i n v e s tig a tio n (39)
so both were considered h e re in as one. The term "subcep-
tio n e f f e c t " has been used to d e sc rib e t h i s a sp e c t of human1
behavior (39:121; 29:99).
Findings
McGinnies (46) compared the e le c tro d e rm a l response's
of a group of s ix te e n su b je c ts to a se t of taboo words w ith
a s e t of n e u tra l words. The words were ta c h is t o s c o p i c a l ly
presen ted a t p re re c o g n itio n exposures (46:245). The data
p e rm itted th e r e j e c t i o n of the n u ll h y p o th esis a t th e .01
le v e l of confidence (46:246).
Lazarus and McCleary1s in v e s tig a tio n of the subcep-
tio n e f f e c t re p o rte d th e p re re c o g n itio n EDR’s of nine sub
j e c t s (39). The experim ent measured the EDR’ s of the two
s e ts of nonsense s y ll a b le s a t p re re c o g n itio n le v e ls . Half
of the s tim u li had been a s s o c ia te d w ith an e l e c t r i c shock
in order to r a i s e th e EDR to them (39:117). A comparison
between the mean p re re c o g n itio n EDR’ s to "shock" and to
"non-shock" s y ll a b le s was s i g n i f i c a n t below th e one per
cent le v e l of confidence.
A ronfreed, Messick, and D iggory’s ex p erim en tatio n
(4) of subception e f f e c t employed th re e c a te g o rie s of stim
u l i (4:519-20); p le a sa n t words, n e u tra l words, and un
p le a sa n t words. The su b je c ts were t h i r t y male and t h i r t y
female und erg rad u ates. F if te e n of each sex were informed
p r io r to th e t e s t of th e type of words t h a t would be em
ployed (4:520). The EDR data reg ard in g th e two groups of
males, informed and non-inform ed, were r e l a t e d to th e prob
lem of t h i s in v e s tig a tio n . The EDR’s of the non-informed
were s i g n i f i c a n t l y lower fo r n e u tra l words th an fo r p le as
an t or u n p leasan t words (4:524).
A ronfreed, et^aJL. (4:526), concluded t h a t t h e i r data
c o n tra d ic te d those of McGinnies’ (46), although the p o rtio n
of t h e i r study which, w ith some m o d ific a tio n , was a d u p li
c a tio n of McGinnies’ a c tu a lly supported McGinnies’ fin d
in g s. A ronfreed, jet a l . , compared p re re c o g n itio n EDR’ s to
taboo words with th e same responses to n e u tra l words. The
s u b je c ts in McGinnies' study were not informed t h a t taboo
words were part of the experim ental s tim u li. The non
informed male s u b je c ts of the experim ent by A ronfreed, ^et
a l ., had s i g n i f i c a n t l y higher p re re c o g n itio n EDR’ s to the
taboo words than to the n e u tra l ones. The fin d in g s of the
two in v e s tig a tio n s were in agreement in t h i s r e s p e c t.
E rro rs
The e r r o r s made by previous in v e s tig a to r s had one
common elem ent. The assumption was made in a l l cases th a t
th e re c o g n itio n th re s h o ld s of th e s tim u li were r e l i a b l e and
ty p ic a l of normally achieved lim ens. P resented below are
p o ssib le reasons fo r th e in v a lid a tio n of t h i s assum ption.
I
25'
E le v a tio n of th e th re s h o ld s
by w ithheld responses
A u th o r itie s (31:231) have suggested the p o s s i b i l i t y
t h a t a t the tim e the g re a te r EDR’s were recorded, although ;
the s u b je c ts had recognized the s tim u li, th ey had w ithheld
t h e i r responses because th e words were s o c ia lly -ta b o o . I f
t h i s c r i t i c i s m is v a lid , then the la rg e r EDR’s were not
caused by p re re c o g n itio n s tim u li but would have been due t o 1
the s u b j e c t 's c o n f l i c t of whether to u t t e r a taboo word or
"disobey" i n s t r u c tio n s fo r the sake of r e s p e c t a b i l i t y (31;
233). An o b je c tio n to the r e s u l t s of the s tu d ie s of
McGinnies and A ronfreed, e t a l .., could be made on t h i s
b a s i s .
A r t i f i c i a l th re s h o ld s r e s u lt in g
from the s e t of the su b je c ts
W o conscious person is ever com pletely u n se t. How
ever, during p e rc e p tu a l t e s t s th e su b je c t should be as
p assiv e as p o s s ib le . The s e t f a c to r was b eliev e d to in
flu en ce th e th re s h o ld s e i t h e r downward or upward, depending
on th e nature of th e s e t of th e s u b je c t.
To inform the s u b je c ts th a t s o c ia lly -ta b o o words
were p a rt of th e s tim u li, as some in v e s tig a to r s (4) did,
would s e t th e s u b je c ts in a manner which would abnormally
lower the th re s h o ld s of such words. The number of taboo
words is lim ite d and guesses w ith a sm all amount of informa-;
t i o n could be very a c c u ra te . P a r t i a l re c o g n itio n of the
stim ulus word combined w ith th e lim ite d number of p o ssib le ;
c o rre c t answers would lower th e th re s h o ld s of th e taboo
words abnorm ally. 1
I
The c o n tra ry may be achieved by a l t e r i n g the s e t in
such a manner t h a t the use of taboo words would not occur
to the p e rc e iv e r even w ith s u f f i c i e n t in fo rm atio n to recog
nize them in a n o n -la b o rato ry s i t u a t i o n . In t h a t case, the;
th re s h o ld s of th e taboo words would be a r t i f i c i a l l y elev a
te d (31:232). That may have been the case w ith McGinnies1
s u b je c ts (46), and th o se of A ronfreed, e t aJ.., (4 ), who
were "n o n -in fo rm ed ."
E levated th re s h o ld s which
r e s u l t e d from an in a p p ro p ria te
method of e s ta b lis h in g them
Recent fin d in g s (10; 25; 48) which have a l t e r e d the
notio n t h a t p erc e p tio n i s an a ll- o r - n o n e process have pro
duced c r i t i c i s m of the subception e f f e c t s tu d ie s . The in
v e s tig a t o r s who propose t h i s h y p o th esis contend t h a t when
a stim u lu s, fo r example a taboo word, was exposed a t a
su b lim in al le v e l and was re-exposed a t le v e ls approaching
th e th re s h o ld of r e c o g n itio n , th e p r o b a b ility of th e c o rre c t
i d e n t i f i c a t i o n of t h a t word was enlarged in th e mind of the ;
p e rc e iv e r w ith each exposure (31:231-32). The p r o b a b ility
became g r e a te r through the re c o g n itio n of segments of the
stim ulus u n ite d w ith the p e r c e i v e r 's c o n je c tu re s . A fte r
each exposure, the segments became la r g e r and more numerous.;
271
Thus, the s p e c if ic n atu re of the word was narrowed and the
p r o b a b ili ty of each rem aining p o s s i b i l i t y was h eig h ten ed .
The narrowing and h eig h ten in g continued u n t i l th e re were
some few words whose p r o b a b i l i t i e s were very much higher
th a n th o se of any other word. I f any of th e se words had
been co n ditioned to e l i c i t a la rg e EDR, a la rg e EDR may
occur. Thus, i t was argued (31:232; 20:224-25), t h a t any
data gathered in an experim ent in which only th e f i r s t
re p o r t was recorded did not provide an a c c u ra te re co rd of
the su b jects* resp o n se s. To make th e data a c c u ra te , a l l
lower order guesses should have been recorded and been con
sid e re d in th e i n t e r p r e t a t i o n of th e d a ta . This procedure
was not follow ed in any previous experim ent. The argument
was supported when an experim ent (48) rev ea led t h a t some
in fo rm atio n was obtained by te n s u b je c ts even when t h e i r
responses to ta c h i s t o s c o p i c a l l y p re se n te d s tim u li were in
c o r r e c t . The d isc o v ery was made by p re se n tin g the same te n
nonsense s y ll a b le s used by Lazarus and McCleary (40) a t
below th re s h o ld exposures. The s u b je c ts were re q u e ste d to
re p o r t t h e i r f i r s t through te n th guess from a l i s t of te n
p o ssib le s tim u li. When th e f i r s t response was wrong, the
c o r r e c t responses were s t i l l above chance a t upper-m iddle
illu m in a tio n , th u s suggesting t h a t the "guesses" were made
on the b a s is of p a r t i a l re c o g n itio n (4 8 :5 6 8 -6 9 )i
Voor (64) went beyond Murdock when he re p e a te d the
Lazarus and McCleary study and included EDR measurements.
I
The d isco v ery was made t h a t the autonomic a c t i v i t y co rre
la te d w ith th e amount of in fo rm atio n rece iv ed a t pre
th re s h o ld exposures. V/hen no in fo rm atio n was p erceiv ed ,
th e re was no autonomic a c t i v i t y .
A r e - a n a l y s is (29) of the data gathered in th e ex
perim ent by Lazarus and McCleary dem onstrated t h a t another
conclusion could be drawn. Although the subception e f f e c t ;
h y p o th esis could not be d isproved, th e "symbolic re p o rt"
h y p o th esis could allow fo r th e fin d in g s in a manner which
was v a l id to an equal or more fav o rab le degree.
Thus, none of the previous s tu d ie s of subception
e f f e c t were acc e p ta b le because each of them contained a t
l e a s t one of the e r r o r s d e sc rib e d above.
Summary
In summary, none of the th re e hypotheses d iscu ssed
had been adeq u ately t e s t e d . Experiments involving th e per
c e p tu a l defense h y p o th esis had been f a u l t y because they
(1 ) did not have a s a t i s f a c t o r y independent method to es
t a b l i s h t h a t th e dependent v a r ia b le stim ulus words d if f e r e d ;
in q u a lity from the independent v a ria b le stim ulus words,
(2 ) e i t h e r did not co n sid er th e frequency-recency of usage
v a r ia b le or used an inadequate measure to determ ine i t s pre
d ic te d e f f e c t , (3) did not attem pt to minimize th e se t of
the s u b je c ts , or (4) did not attem pt to minimize or d e te c t
the s u b j e c t s ’ te n d e n c ie s to w ithhold responses to s o c ia lly -
taboo stim ulus words. T ests of th e subception process
h y p o th esis were based on the assum ption t h a t th e th re s h o ld s
fo r th e stim ulus words were tr u e and had not been a f f e c te d
by th e s e t of the s u b je c ts or by w ithheld resp o n se s. Sub- 1
c e p tio n e f f e c t experim ents a ls o involved the assum ption
t h a t th e s e t of th e s u b je c ts and w ithheld responses had
not a f f e c te d th e th re s h o ld s of th e stim ulus words. Also
included in the l a t t e r t e s t s was the assum ption t h a t per
cep tio n i s an a ll-o r-n o n e p ro cess.
I
CHAPTER I I I
THE M ETHOD
The Stim ulus Words
In order to fin d the most d is tu r b in g words in the
d ic tio n a r y (65), a p re lim in ary study was made. A l i s t of
t h i r t y words which had been used in previous experim ents
because of t h e i r d is tu rb in g nature was accum ulated. A
q u e s tio n n a ire employing th e Stephenson Q S o rt technique
(61) was completed by t h i r t y male co lle g e s tu d e n ts . The
q u e s tio n n a ire and r e s u l t s are in th e Appendix A. The six
most d is tu rb in g words in a c o l le g i a te d ic tio n a ry were se
le c te d by the stu d e n ts in t h i s rank o rd er; pimp, p r ic k ,
ra p e , whore, s l u t , and b itc h .
Two of the words were d isc a rd e d . Due to the v a r ie ty
of d e f i n i t i o n s of the word ''p r i c k , 1 ' the frequency of i t s
usage w ith th e d is tu rb in g d e f i n i t i o n s o le ly was considered
to o d i f f i c u l t to i s o l a t e . An in te r r o g a t io n of th e s u b je c ts
of th e p re lim in a ry study in d ic a te d t h a t more th an te n per
cent were not aware of th e d e f i n i t i o n of th e word " s l u t . "
For the above re a so n , the word " s lu t" was removed from the
t e s t l i s t . Thus, the four words s e le c te d which comprised
the dependent v a r ia b le fo r t h i s experim ent were pimp, rap e,
whore, and b itc h .
30
In order to m aintain s i m i l a r i t y in s tr u c tu r e and
le n g th (43) of the stim ulus words, each d is tu rb in g word was
se p a ra te d in to th re e segments:
1. The i n i t i a l consonant or blend.
2. The vowel.
3. The f i n a l consonant or consonants.
Two n e u tr a l words were s e le c te d to match each d is
tu rb in g word. One n e u tra l word d if f e r e d from i t s d is t u r b
ing mate only in th e f i r s t segment. The o th er matching
n e u tra l word d i f f e r e d in segment th r e e . The vowels r e
mained th e same in each group. Frequency of usage a ls o
guided th e s e le c tio n s . Below are th e t e s t words chosen:
C r i t i c a l Words N eu tral Words
Segment I a l t e r e d Segment I I a l te r e d
pimp limp p i l l
rape tap e rake
whore snore hose
b itc h d itc h bib
When th e e le c tro d e rm a l responses to d is tu rb in g and
n e u tra l words a re measured, th e s e q u e n tia l arrangem ent of
th e words becomes very i n f l u e n t i a l (2 6 :8 ). Three f a c t o r s
of th e s e q u e n tia l arrangem ent may in flu e n c e th e EDR re
s u l t s . The f i r s t word of each t e s t was a n e u tra l one be
cause th e i n i t i a l apprehension to the t e s t s i t u a t i o n can
cause EDR's of abnorm ally high am plitude to the f i r s t t e s t
word (2 6 :8 ). A fte r reco g n izin g a d is tu rb in g word, the
su b je c t may r e a c t w ith u nusually high am plitude EDR's to
the word, or o c c a sio n a lly two words, immediately follow ing
th e d is tu rb in g stim ulus (2 6 :8 ). For t h i s reaso n , a t l e a s t
two n e u tra l words se p arate d th e d is tu rb in g words. A con
s i s t e n t s e q u e n tia l p a t te r n of d is tu rb in g and n e u tra l words
w i l l allow th e s u b je c t to p r e d ic t th e placement of d is tu r b
ing s tim u li. Thus, an a n t ic i p a to r y EDR i s evoked (26:8).
So the two t e s t s had d i f f e r e n t s e q u e n tia l p a t te r n s .
In order to t e s t the e f f e c t of the s e t of th e sub
j e c t s , two t e s t s were tak en by each su b je c t on se p a ra te
days. Each t e s t contained h a l f th e s e le c te d words.
Because two of the c r i t i c a l words shared the same
vowel, pimp and b i t c h , they were assig n ed to d i f f e r e n t t e s t
days. Due to th e r e l a t i v e d is tu rb in g q u a lity of pimp to
b i t c h , pimp being th e stro n g e r according to the p relim in ary
in v e s tig a tio n , th e weakest of th e rem aining two words,
whore, was combined w ith i t .
The below stim ulus word sequences were adopted:
F i r s t Day
Hose
P i l l
Second Day
D itch
Whore
B itch Bib
Snore Tape
Pimp
Rake
Limp
Rape
The v e rb a l u tte ra n c e s were recorded by a speaker who
had stu d ie d and ta u g h t phonetics fo r f i f t e e n y e a rs . The
average peaks of each word were determ ined by a VU meter
in an Ampex 300 playback c i r c u i t . With each word a d ju s te d I
I
to th e same i n t e n s i t y , they were re -re c o rd e d f i f t e e n tim es
w ith p ro g re ssiv e th r e e - d e c ib e l gain.
S u b jects
S u b jec ts were male stu d e n t v o lu n te e rs who were given
a sm all monetary reward. N ineteen of the s tu d e n ts were r e
c r u ite d in speech c la s s e s . The rem ainder were co n tacted
through f r a t e r n i t y houses or th e Speech and Hearing C lin ic
of th e U n iv e rs ity of Southern C a lif o r n ia . S u b je c ts ' ages
ranged from seventeen years and e ig h t months to tw en ty -fiv e
years and te n months. The mean average of th e ages was
twenty years and six months. None of the s u b je c ts had a
h i s t o r y of hearing d i f f i c u l t i e s . A ll s u b je c ts spoke Gener
a l American.
Apparatus
The ap p aratu s used to reco rd the stim ulus words con
s i s t e d of a RCA 77D microphone, Ampex 300 re c o rd e r, Davan
11A tra n s m is s io n s e t , and Ampex 600 re c o rd e r. The tape
speed was seven and a h a lf inches per second.
An A llis o n A uditory T est Unit Model 7A in co n junction
w ith a Pentron Model 9T-3C tape playback and a James B.
Lansing Model 131 speaker was used to p re se n t the stim ulus
341
words to the s u b je c ts . The two-way ta lk -b a c k system a lso
is made p o ssib le by th e A llis o n console.
EDR's were measured by a Wheatstone bridge input to !
i
a t h r e e - s t a g e , d ir e c tly -c o u p le d , p u sh -p u ll a m p lif ie r (63).
Changes in c u rre n t were recorded on an E s te r li n e Angus A W
DC M illim eter Chart re c o rd e r.
Experim ental S ta tio n s
The experim ent was performed in a con v en tio n al ac-
c o u s tic a lly is o l a te d two-room s u ite a t th e Speech and Hear
ing C lin ic , U n iv e rsity of Southern C a lif o rn ia .
S u b je c t's s t a t i o n
S u b je c ts were t e s t e d in d iv id u a lly in th e is o l a te d
room co n tain in g a com fortable c h a ir w ith an a d ja c e n t end
ta b le on which the su b je c t r e s te d h is l e f t arm. The room
a ls o contained a microphone, a loudspeaker, and a blue
sig n a l l i g h t which was used to a l e r t the su b je c t to the
s tim u li. The loudspeaker was lo c a te d six f e e t a t a fix ed
eye le v e l from the c h a ir and behind th e c h a ir i s a window
connecting the room to th e c o n tro l room.
E x p erim e n ter's s t a t i o n
The experim enter s a t fa c in g th e window in th e ad
jo in in g c o n tro l room which contained apparatus necessary
fo r th e t e s t i n g procedure.
i
3 5 !
Procedure
P relim in ary procedure
r
E le c tro d e s were placed on th e palm and back of th e |
s u b j e c t ’s l e f t hand by an e l a s t i c band so th e change in
r e s is ta n c e to a six v o lt d i r e c t c u rre n t could be measured.
The e le c tro d e s were 3/4 inch in diam eter zinc d is c s in
rubber cups. A drop of zin c su lp h a te s o lu tio n was put on !
each e le c tro d e and th e cup was f i l l e d w ith s a lin e p aste
before th ey were placed on th e s u b je c t.
A fte r th e su b je c t had read th e t e s t i n s t r u c t i o n s
(see Appendix B), he was engaged in c o n v e rsatio n u n t i l he
appeared to be put a t ease by the inform al and p assiv e a t
t i t u d e of th e experim enter. Ten to twenty minutes elapsed
during th e p erio d s of co n v e rsatio n .
P rio r to the f i r s t t e s t f o r each s u b je c t, a p ra c tic e
word, "wick," was p rese n te d . The purpose of t h i s was to
a s c e r ta in i f the in s t r u c t i o n s were understood and to fa m il
i a r i z e the su b je c t w ith t e s t procedures.
The i n t e n s i t y a t which th e s u b je c t was aware of a
speech stim ulus but could not recognize th e stim ulus word
was in d ic a te d by the p r a c tic e word t e s t . This i n t e n s i t y ,
f u r th e r r e f e r r e d to as the th re s h o ld of a u d i b i l i t y , was
used as the s t a r t i n g le v e l fo r th e a c tu a l t e s t word.
Test procedure
S u b jects p a r tic ip a t e d in two separate t e s t s from one
to t h i r t y days a p a r t . T ests were s im ila r except t h a t d i f
f e r e n t s e ts of stim ulus words were p rese n ted each tim e.
The t e s t procedure f o r each word fo llo w s: 1
i
1. The blue warning l i g h t was switched on by the
experim enter.
2. A stim ulus word was p rese n ted from two to e ig h t
seconds a f t e r the warning l i g h t . The i n t e r v a l
between the warning and the stim ulus was v a rie d
from two to e ig h t seconds to prevent an a n t i c i
p ato ry EDR. The experim enter attem pted to pre
se n t th e f i r s t exposure to each taped u tte ra n c e
a t approxim ately th e s u b j e c t 's th re s h o ld of
a u d i b i l i t y .
3. Ten seconds were allowed fo r an u n in te rru p te d
EDR re c o rd in g , a f t e r which s u b je c ts were asked
to i d e n t i f y th e stim ulus word. They were en
couraged to make guesses and re p o r t a l l p o ssi
b i l i t i e s . This procedure was re p e a te d w ith pro
g re s s iv e th r e e d e c ib e l in c re a s e s per r e p e t i t i o n .
T h e .te s t of each word was completed when the word
i
was c o r r e c t ly i d e n t i f i e d , as the f i r s t choice,
or a f t e r 15 i n c o r r e c tly i d e n t i f i e d exposures.
A fte r each t e s t , s u b je c ts were re q u e sted not to
d isc u ss the nature of th e experim ent or th e
s tim u li w ith anyone. I
4. A ll t h i r t y s u b je c ts follow ed th e procedure
d e scrib ed above. No ex cep tio n s were made nor
was any in d ic a tio n given t h a t th e in s t r u c t i o n s
were not understood by a l l s u b je c ts .
I
Procedure f o r re c o rd in g the
responses
Two of the s u b j e c t 's responses to each stim ulus were
reco rd ed . The f i r s t was th e s u b j e c t 's co n je ctu re of what
word or words th e stim ulus could be. The second was the
EDR e l i c i t e d by exposure to each stim ulus p r e s e n ta tio n .
The experim enter made a w r i tte n re co rd of each v erb al
resp o n se. In each case, the su b je c t was asked to s p e ll the
word fo r th e purpose of avoiding p o ssib le m isunderstand
in g s. In cases where th e re p ly was a r a r e l y used or non
sense word, the su b je c t was asked i f th e word had any mean
ing to him. Thus, r a r e l y used words which the s u b je c t did
not know as a meaningful symbol were ca teg o riz e d as "non
sense" and words not l i s t e d in the d ic tio n a r y (65); nick
names, e t c . , which were m eaningful to th e su b je c t were
l i s t e d as words.
A fte r each d is tu rb in g word was recognized or had
J
been p rese n ted f i f t e e n tim es w ithout re c o g n itio n , th e sub
j e c t was in te rr o g a te d to determ ine i f he had w ith h eld the
c o r r e c t resp o n se. In the fiv e cases in which s u b je c ts
adm itted a h e s ita n c y to r e p o r t h o n estly what they had
h ea rd , reco rd s were amended w ith the c o rre c t answer i n s e r t - i
ed where th e s u b je c t had suspected or recognized the word.
The magnitude of the EDR was measured from the time
of each stim ulus word p r e s e n ta tio n f o r a p erio d of e ig h t
seconds.
I n v e s tig a tio n of Frequency
^ d Recency of Usage
^ oT '3'tTmu 1 u s Wdrde;
Following the experim ent, each su b je c t completed a
q u e s tio n n a ire reg ard in g th e frequency w ith which he heard
th e stim ulus words, excluding th e t e s t s (see Appendix C).
The q u e s tio n n a ire is based on Stephenson Q S o rt Technique
(61). Each e n try re q u ire d an assigned r a tin g . A minimum
time of th r e e weeks had elapsed between the t e s t p erio d s
and the f i l l i n g out of th e form. The d u ra tio n was consid
ered s u f f i c i e n t to overcome any in flu e n c e the experiment
may have on the s u b j e c t 's d is c rim in a tio n of the usage of
th e words. R e su lts are a lso p rese n ted in Appendix C.
CHAPTER IV
THE RESULTS
S ectio n A
In Chapter I I the need was dem onstrated fo r a novel
instrum ent designed to measure the frequency and recency
of th e usage of s e le c te d words by in d iv id u a ls or groups.
Without such an in stru m e n t, f u r t h e r stu d ie s of p e rc e p tu a l
defense were v a lu e le s s because no a v a ila b le device was con
sid e re d capable of measuring th e frequency of usage of
taboo words. The purpose of t h i s s e c tio n of th e study was
to p re se n t the method developed to give a s a t i s f a c t o r y
measure of the usage o f ' a l l words.
The e ig h t n e u tra l words were stu d ied in the attem pt
to a t t a i n a measure of the e f f e c t s of the frequency-recency
of usage f a c to r on the th r e s h o ld s . Three measurements of
each word were made:
1. The Thorndike-Lorge count of frequency of occur-
rency per m illio n w r i tte n words (64).
2. The r a tin g s by tw enty-nine^ s u b je c ts acq u ired by
a Stephenson Q S o rt q u e s tio n n a ire (61).
^During the i n t e r v a l between the la b o ra to ry t e s t s
and th e com pletion of the q u e s tio n n a ire , one of the sub
j e c t s moved from the area and l e f t no forw arding ad d ress.
i
39
3. The r e c o g n itio n th re s h o ld s by t r i a l of t h i r t y
s u b je c ts . The s u b je c ts fo r (2)- and (3) were the
same.
Thresholds fo r each of the words fo r each s u b je c t were not
always o b tain ed . Of a p o ssib le two hundred and f o rty re c
o g n itio n th r e s h o ld s , one hundred and n in e ty -sev en were
recorded.
The words and t h e i r scores are p rese n ted in Table 1.
Pearson product-moment c o r r e la tio n s between the
scores were:
ryx ■ - . 59 ry z « - . 68 v"xz m - . 13
An attem pt was made to combine x and z a t v ario u s
w eights to achieve a formula to p r e d ic t r e c o g n itio n th re s h
olds. With y^ re p re s e n tin g the p re d ic te d th re s h o ld of
re c o g n itio n , th e follow ing r e g r e s s io n equation was found:
y^ » -.1 3 x - 1.06z * 8.71
cry ■ 1.47
ry .x z - - .9 2
The b e ta s are B2 « • .60 and » - .7 2
The r e s i d u a l v arian ce of .34 was found by v ir tu e of
the v arian ce formula:
^ 2 2 2 *
6y x z " °y ^ “ r y.xz^
P re v io u sly the Thorndike-Lorge word l i s t was con
s id e re d t o be th e most a c c u ra te p re d ic to r of re c o g n itio n
th r e s h o ld s . T h e .v isu a l d u ra tio n th re s h o ld was r e p o r te d t o
41'
TABLE 1
RATINGS USED TO DEVELOP MEASURE
OF FREQUENCY-RECENCY OF USAGE INFLUENCE
ON THRESHOLDS OF NEUTRAL W ORDS
Thorndike-
Lorge
Count
(x)
Mean of
Stephenson
Q S o rt
U )
Mean of
R ecognition
T hresholds
(y) •
Bib
Ditch
Hose
Limp
P i l l
Rake
Snore
Tape
7
28
9
15
7
13
8
8
M x a 11.88
6k s 6.68
-2 .4 8
+ 0.07
+ 0.55
-0 .3 1
+ 0.53
- 1.00
- 0 .7 2
+ 0.74
M z a - .3 3
6z = 1.00
11.00
5.86
6.90
6.54
8.33
7.17
7.23
7.14
M y = 7 .5 2
< 5z s 1.47
I
421
have a - .7 9 Pearson c o r r e la tio n w ith the logarithm of
Thorndike-Lorge frequency r a tin g s (31:230). The Thorndike-!
Lorge r a t i n g s c o r r e la te d with the th re s h o ld s of th e e ig h t
j
words l i s t e d above w ith a c o e f f ic ie n t of - .5 9 . However,
lo g arith m conversion was not employed. The Q S o rt ques
tio n n a ir e r a t i n g s had a more a c cu ra te c o r r e l a t i o n c o e f f i c i
en t of - . 6 8 . An im portant a sp ec t i s th a t the Thorndike-
j
Lorge r a t i n g s and th e Q S o rt r a tin g s had a c o r r e la tio n
c o e f f i c i e n t of +.13. I f th e se two measurements are in d ic a
t o r s of th e frequency and recency of the usage of the stimu
lu s words, then the conclusion reached i s t h a t one meas
ured th e lif e t im e frequency of usage of a word and t h a t the
o ther i s in flu en ced more by the e f f e c t of re c e n t usage.
The conclusion i s t h a t Thorndike and Lorge gave long-range
d a ta , while the Q S o rt had been in flu e n c ed more by r e c e n t
u sa g e.
When th e se two f a c to r s were combined in the equation
Yl = -.1 3 x - 1.06z 8.71
the Pearson c o r r e l a t i o n c o e f f ic ie n t was - .9 2 . This m u lti
ple r e g r e s s io n eq u atio n has two advantages beyond p re v i
ously used measures:
1.' I t is the most a c c u ra te system as y et devised
fo r p re d ic tin g re c o g n itio n th re s h o ld s .
2. I t is r e l a t i v e l y fre e from in a c c u ra te r a tin g s
assig n ed to so c ially -tab o o - words.
T h erefo re, th e formula can be employed in t e s t i n g
v
43'
whether the re c o g n itio n of taboo words i s in flu en c ed by
f a c t o r s o th e r th a n th e frequency and recency of usage with !
more c e r t a in ty than p re v io u sly . !
!
i
S ectio n B !
This s e c tio n of th e d i s s e r t a t i o n p re se n ts data
y ie ld e d by th e experim ent. The d ata gathered were in
tended to provide an answer to th re e se p a ra te hypotheses
contained in th e problem. The p r e s e n ta tio n of the data
r e l a t i v e to each h y p o th esis i s divided in to th re e p a r ts :
1. Purpose of the d a ta : t h i s i s a statem ent of th e
p a r t i c u l a r h y p o th esis which th e data were in
tended to t e s t .
2. Source of the d a ta : t h i s c o n s is ts of th e q u a li
f i c a t i o n s and l i m i t a t i o n s of th e source of the
data as they ap p lie d to th e p a r t i c u l a r method
of t r e a t i n g the h y p o th e sis.
3. R e su lts of th e d a ta : t h i s i s p resen ted w ith the
i n t e r p r e t a t i o n s of the s t a t i s t i c a l t e s t s of the
d a t a .
P ercep tu al Defense Hypothesis
Purpose
This a sp e c t of th e in v e s tig a tio n was designed to
d isc o v er i f th e th re s h o ld s fo r the c o rr e c t re c o g n itio n of
j
d is tu rb in g words are h ig h e r th an th e c o r r e c t re c o g n itio n
th re s h o ld s of n e u tra l words.
i
Source
i
The experim ent was designed to e s t a b l i s h th re s h o ld i
of re c o g n itio n of twelve words fo r t h i r t y s u b je c ts . This !
would have r e s u lt e d in a maximum of 360 in d iv id u a l th re s h
o ld s. However, in s i x t y - s i x c a se s , a word was not cor
r e c t l y i d e n t i f i e d w ith in the a l l o t t e d p r e s e n ta tio n s . Stim-i
ulus words are l i s t e d in Table 2, w ith th e number of in
sta n ce s in which they were c o r r e c t ly i d e n t i f i e d .
TABLE 2
AM OUNT OF CORRECT RECOGNITION
OF THE STIMULUS W ORDS
F i r s t Day Second Day
Stim ulus
Words
No. of Times
C o rre c tly
Recognized
Stim ulus
Words
No. of Times
C o rre c tly
Recognized
Hose 30 D itch 28
P i l l 15 Whore 28
B itch 29 Bib 24
Snore 30 Tape 28
Limp 13 Pimp 16
Rape 24 Rake 29
An a n a ly s is of th e data in d ic a te d t h a t i n a b i l i t y to
id e n tif y the word c o r r e c t ly w ith in the l im its of the exper
iment i s not r e l a t e d to th e day th e word was p resen ted or
i t s d is tu rb in g c h a ra c te r. The e f f e c t of a s e t due to in -
icorrect p re re c o g n itio n hypotheses (7) may ex p lain the
45!
i n a b i l i t y of s u b je c ts to i d e n tif y words a t approxim ately 42
db above th re s h o ld s of a u d i b i l i t y . There is no apparent
r e l a t i o n s h i p between th e number of tim es a word is not rec -j
ognized and th e th re s h o ld s when the word i s c o r r e c t ly iden-^
t i f i e d . The assum ption i s not made t h a t the words would
have been recognized had th e t e s t been extended. Thus, no
a r b i t r a r y scores are assigned to th e u n id e n tif ie d words and
they are not considered in the com putation of the d a ta .
The experim ent provided two hundred and n in e ty -fo u r usable
in d iv id u a l th r e s h o ld s .
O b jectio n s to th e data r e s u l t i n g from previous t e s t s
of t h i s h y p o th esis were avoided in th e follow ing manner:
1. The d is tu rb in g nature of the dependent v a ria b le
stim ulus words was e s ta b lis h e d by an independent
measure, d escrib ed on page 30.
2. The s e t of the su b je c ts which would te m p o ra rily
i n t e r f e r e w ith the p e rc e p tio n of taboo words was
minimized by recommended procedures d e sc rib ed
and c ite d on page 17.
3. The s u b je c ts ' te n d en cies to w ithhold v erb al
responses to taboo stim ulus words was minimized
by th e same procedure recommended to d eal w ith
the s e t . S u b jec ts were a ls o in te rr o g a te d f o l
lowing th e t e s t of each taboo word in order to
d e te c t w ithheld resp o n ses. (See page 1 8 .) ;
4 . The v aria n ce due to th e frequency-recency of
usage of the stim ulus words was determ ined and
u t i l i z e d in th e manner d escrib e d below. 1
R e su lts j
The t e s t of the p e rc e p tu a l defense was accomplished
by an a p p lic a tio n of th e m u ltip le r e g re s s io n eq u a tio n which
was developed to p r e d ic t re c o g n itio n th re sh o ld s on the
b a sis of th e frequency and recency of usage of th e stim ulus!
word. Employing two measures, the Thorndike-Lorge Word
Counts (x) and a Q S o rt q u e s tio n n a ire r e s u l t s (z ), the
eq u atio n
yjL = -.1 3 x - 1.06z - * ■ 8.71
was developed. In th e eq u atio n , y-^ re p re se n te d the pre
d ic te d th re s h o ld s of e ig h t n e u tra l words. The eq u atio n had
a Pearson c o r r e la tio n c o e f f ic ie n t w ith th e a c tu a l th re s h
olds of - . 9 2 and a r e s id u a l v arian ce of .34.
I f any words, o th er than the e ig h t n e u t r a l, were
te s te d under the same experim ental c o n d itio n s, th ey would
be expected to y ie ld re c o g n itio n th re s h o ld means which
would d i s t r i b u t e about the r e g re s s io n lin e w ith a v aria n ce
approxim ately equal to t h a t of th e r e s id u a l v a ria n c e ob
ta in e d from the m u ltip le c o r r e la tio n c o e f f ic ie n t. I f the
v arian ce of the mean th re s h o ld s of th e " d is tu r b in g 1 1 words
was s u b s t a n t i a l l y la rg e r than the expected r e s id u a l v a r i
ance, th e n the conclusion would have been t h a t th e re was a
source of v a r ia tio n w ith in th e se words t h a t did not e x i s t in
47'
the n e u tra l words. If such a v a r i a t i o n e x is te d , i t may
have been in te r p r e t e d as p e rc e p tu a l defense or v ig ila n c e , !
according to th e d i r e c t i o n of the v a r i a t i o n from th e p re- '
I
d ie te d th r e s h o ld s .
With the assum ption t h a t the "d is tu rb in g " words were
from th e same p o p u la tio n as the n e u tra l words, then the
b e s t e stim a te of r e s id u a l v arian ce about the re g re s s io n
lin e was considered to be obtained by
S 2 2.23 — 56*
y-xz “ 4
I f the re g r e s s io n lin e fo r y ie ld e d y-^ was c o r r e c t ly
n
chosen, one should expect Syfxz to be a minimum. Whatever
o 2
th e d e v ia tio n , S from cr as computed from th e s e t of
y * A « y • A 4
n e u tra l words should have f a l l e n w ith in the sampling e r r o r
l i m i t s .
TABLE 3
RATINGS USED TO MEASURE FREQUENCY-RECENCY
OF USAGE FACTOR INFLUENCE ON
THRESHOLDS OF DISTURBING W ORDS
Stim ulus
Word
Thorndike-
Lorge
Occurrence
per
M illio n
S u b je c ts 1
Q S o rt
Rating
Plus
Three
P red icted
Threshold
A ctual
Threshold
D ifferen ce
Bitch .83 5.25 6.21 6.86 + .65
Pimp .56 2.53 7.26 7.50 + .24
Rape 3.00 4 .0 0 7.75 9.04 * 1 . 29
Whore 3 .00 3.54 9.14 9.06 - .08
*Since the "N" v a r ia b le s of y are not u t i l i z e d in
c a lc u la tin g y-^, th e re were "N" degrees of freedom.
Pursuant to the above reaso n in g , s y^xz and cTy^xz
were used as independent e s tim a te s of r e s id u a l v aria n ce.
The F r a t i o was u t i l i z e d and r e s u lt e d in
1
S 2
F = m 1.65
0- 2 .34
y. xz
Under the a p p ro p ria te degrees of freedom, t h i s F did
not approach s ig n ific a n c e a t the fiv e per cent le v e l. Thus
th e conclusion drawn is th a t th r e s h o ld s of th e " d is tu rb in g
words came from the p o p u la tio n of th re s h o ld s re p re se n te d by
the n e u tra l word th r e s h o ld s . When the source of v ariance
due to th e frequency and recency of usage is removed, th e
th re s h o ld s do not s y s te m a tic a lly d i f f e r from each o th e r.
Thus, no v arian ce remained which could be due to the d is
tu rb in g nature of words. The p e rc e p tu a l defense hypothesis
was r e je c te d w ithout f u r th e r a n a ly s is of the d a ta .
P e rc e p tu a l Processes Hypothesis
Purpose
The purpose of t h i s p a r t of the experiment is to de
term ine i f the in c o rr e c t guesses of d is tu rb in g words a t
p re re c o g n itio n exposures are le s s ac c u ra te than the in c o r
r e c t guesses of n e u tra l words a t p re re c o g n itio n exposures.
Source
The data c o n s is te d of the t h i r t y s u b je c ts ' prerecog
n iti o n c o n je c tu re s of th e stim ulus words. The accuracy of
the p re re c o g n itio n guesses, which exceeded two thousand,
was stu d ie d by two methods. Following McGinnies* method
(46:248), th e n atu re of the meaning of the re p o r t was
j
stu d ie d . A review of the guesses in d ic a te d t h a t the re - !
p o rtin g of n o n se n sica l words and the r e f u s a l to venture any
guess both are independent of th e n a tu re of th e stim ulus
word. McGinnies' method did not w arrant any s t a t i s t i c a l
t e s t . Thus, only one method was a c tu a l ly u t i l i z e d to meas
ure s t a t i s t i c a l l y the accuracy of p re re c o g n itio n g uesses.
The measurement of accuracy employed was o rig in a te d fo r
t h i s in v e s tig a tio n . In order to apply the system, each
stim ulus word was divided in to th re e phonetic p a r ts . These
p o rtio n s were th e consonant or blend which preceded the
vowel sound, the vowel sound, and the consonant or conso
nants follow ing the vowel. In t h i s manner, fo r example,
the word "limp" was d iv id ed th u s ly : (1) 1, (2) i , and (3)
mp.
The system of analyzing th e data was based on re c e n t
fin d in g s which in d ic a te t h a t , using the ascending lim its
method, the l i s t e n e r w i l l recognize an in c re a sin g number of
elem ents of the stim ulus word as th e t e s t of each word pro
g re sse s u n t i l complete r e c o g n itio n is a t t a i n e d . The method
of accummulating c o r r e c t ly perceived elements u n t i l th e com
p le te word i s recognized was c a lle d "p e rc e p tu a l progres
sion" by the w r i te r .
In many ca ses, a c o r r e c t ly perceived phonetic element
was "fo rg o tte n " on the follow ing exposure. This was c a lle d
"p e rc ep tu a l r e g r e s s i o n . " I f an attem pt to re p re s s percep
tio n had been made by the p e rc e iv e r, i t could have been
m anifested by "p e rc e p tu a l r e g r e s s io n ." Insomuch as the
re c o g n itio n th re s h o ld s were in the p re d ic te d range, th e re
was no b a s is of o b je c tio n to t h e i r v a l i d i t y . T his o b je c t-
ti o n had been made to the previous study of the subception
p ro cess. (See pages 24-25.)
R e su lts
Table 4 gives the percentage of each type of word on
which p e rc e p tu a l r e g r e s s io n occurred p r io r to re c o g n itio n .
A comparison of the p re re c o g n itio n guesses showed
t h a t in twenty-one of tw enty-nine^ cases, the percentage of
p e rc e p tu a l re g r e s s io n was higher fo r the d is tu rb in g words
than fo r the n e u tra l words. A sign t e s t was used to d e te r
mine th e p r o b a b ility value of twenty-one occurrences of a
p o ssib le tw en ty -n in e. Since the experiment was designed to
p r e d ic t s p e c i f i c a l l y th e d i r e c t i o n of d is c re p a n t frequency,
a o n e - ta ile d t e s t was w arranted. With th e t e s t r e s u l t s
a d ju ste d to a o n e - ta ile d m o d ific a tio n , the n u ll h y p o th esis
was r e j e c t e d a t the 2.5 per cent le v e l of s ig n ific a n c e .
Thus, w ith p e rc e p tu a l re g r e s s io n used as a measurement of
p e rc e p tu a l accuracy a t p re re c o g n itio n l e v e l s , the subcep-
-k)ne su b je c t had equal percentages of p e rc e p tu a l re
g re s s io n fo r both s e ts of words.
5 1 !
TABLE 4
PERCENTAGE OF PERCEPTUAL REGRESSION
FOR EACH SUBJECT PER
STIMULUS W ORD TYPE
S ubject
Percentage of
N eu tral Words on Which
P e rc e p tu a l R egression
Occurred
Percentage of
Taboo Words on Which
P ercep tu al R egression
Occurred
1 X 33% 25%
2 X 25% 0%
3 25% x 75%
4 0% x 67%
5 17% x 33%
6 38% x 50%
7 33% xlOC%
8 50% xlOC%
9 33% x l 00%
1 0 43% x 50%
11 50% x 67%
12 X 72% 67%
13 72% x l 00%
14 0% x l 00%
15 X 17% C %
16 4C% xl0C%
17 57% x 75%
18 X 75% 33%
19
33% x 67%
20 40% x 75%
21 50% xl0C%
22 50% 5C%
23 40% xlOG%
24 X 72% 50%
25 20% x 67%
26 38% x 75%
27 X 5C% 33%
28 25% x 67%
29 X 57%
C %
30 50% x l 00%
M - 40% M = 68%
x Highest percentage fo r in d iv id u a l s u b je c t.
t i o n process was dem onstrated by th e s u b je c ts .
Subception E ffe c t H ypothesis
i
Purpose
The purpose of t h i s p o r tio n of th e experim ent is to
determ ine i f th e e le c tro d e rm a l resp o n se s to d is tu r b in g
words a t p r e re c o g n itio n exposures are g r e a te r th a n th e ;
e le c tro d e rm a l resp o n se s to n e u tr a l words a t p r e r e c o g n itio n
exposures.
Source
The h y p o th e sis was t e s t e d by comparing th e s u b j e c t s '
e le c tro d e rm a l resp o n se s t o th e d is tu r b in g words a t pre
r e c o g n itio n exposures on one day w ith th e same resp o n se s
of th e n e u tr a l words in th e same s e q u e n tia l p o s i t i o n of th e
o th e r day.
Due to th e method of comparing th e resp o n se s of
matched s e q u e n tia l p o s i t i o n s , i t was n ec essary to have com
p le te re c o rd s fo r each s u b je c t whose data was computed.
That i s , i f th e mean p re r e c o g n itio n EXH could not be de
term ined fo r each s u b je c t fo r each of th e e ig h t words used !
to t e s t t h i s h y p o th e s is , the complete re c o rd was n u l l i f i e d .
Two f a c t o r s c o n trib u te d t o th e d is q u a lif y in g of th e re c o rd s
of e ig h te e n of th e t h i r t y persons t e s t e d : ( l ) sometime dur
ing one of th e two t e s t p e rio d s of nine of th e s u b je c ts , a
m echanical d is tu rb a n c e or f a i l u r e a f f e c t e d th e re c o rd s on
a t l e a s t one of the words; (2 ) in nine o th e r cases, the ,
s u b je c t reached the p o in t when EDR’s no longer appeared.
The second f a c t o r was caused by the lengthy d u ra tio n re -
i
quired to e s t a b l i s h the a u d ito ry th re s h o ld s of re co g n i
t i o n which were considered to be of primary im portance.
Thus, the reco rd s of twelve s u b je c ts provided the data fo r
t h i s p o rtio n of the re se a rc h .
In cases when the word was not i d e n t i f i e d w ith in the
f i f t e e n t r i a l l i m it of the t e s t , th e EDR’s were computed as
p re re c o g n itio n . The s u b je c ts f a i l e d to id e n tif y twelve
n e u tra l and te n d is tu rb in g words.
In order to avoid th e rem aining p o ssib le o b je c tio n
(see page 26), th e stim ulus was considered recognized even
though the c o r r e c t i d e n t i f i c a t i o n was not the f i r s t choice
of th e s u b je c t. The c o rre c t word was re p o rte d , although
not the f i r s t ch o ice, in f i f t e e n in s ta n c e s . Eight of th e se
were n e u tra l words and seven of them d is tu rb in g words. Rec
o g n itio n was a lso considered to have occurred i f th e sub
j e c t had the c o r r e c t word but had p lu r a liz e d or changed i t s
t e n s e .' This occurred tw ice w ith th e independent v a r ia b le ;
and once w ith the dependent v a r ia b le .
EDR’s were converted to th e square ro o t of conduc
ta n ce in accordance w ith th e system recommended by Lacy
(35). Zero resp o n ses were included in the estim ate of
average response per su b je c t per word.
Data were subm itted to an a n a ly s is of v a ria n c e . The
54!
r e s u l t s are p re se n te d in Table 5.
TABLE 5
RESULTS OF THE ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE
OF EDR'S TO fREREOOGNITION EXPOSURES
OF THE STIMULUS W ORDS
Source d. f . M S F R atio
S u b jects 11 377166 4.06
Days 1 1426 <1.00
Words 1 51894 2.28
S u b je c ts x Days 11 93303 4 .09*
S u b je c ts x Words 11 4287 <1.00
Days x Words 1 2948 <1.00
S u b jects x Days x Words 11 23548 1.03
* P - . 0 1 or beyond.
The a n a ly s is of v aria n ce in d ic a te d t h a t the only j?
r a t i o s t h a t were s i g n i f i c a n t a t the fiv e per cent le v e l or
beyond were th o se which t e s t e d d if fe r e n c e s among s u b je c ts .
Both the s u b je c ts ' v a r ia b le and th e s u b je c ts ' by-day i n t e r
a c tio n proved s i g n i f i c a n t beyond th e one per cent le v e l fo r
th e a p p ro p ria te degrees of freedom. D iffe re n c e s among sub- ;
j e c t s were* of course, expected to be s i g n i f i c a n t . The
rem aining F t e s t s in d ic a te d lack of s ig n ific a n c e fo r the
experim ent v a r ia b le s . Thus, th e subception e f f e c t hypothe
s i s was not v e r i f i e d by th e se d a ta .
However, th e fin d in g s of the h y p o th esis were consid- :
55'
ered in c o n clu siv e r a th e r th an n egative fo r th e follow ing
th re e reaso n s:
1. The p o s s i b i l i t y has been in d ic a te d by some sub- ;
1
j e c t s t h a t some of th e n e u tra l words had in
\
t h e i r usage d e f i n i t i o n s not l i s t e d in a d ic tio n
a ry , which would be more d is tu rb in g th a n the
dependent v a ria b le s tim u li. These unpublished |
d e n o ta tio n s would probably occur to a p e rc e iv e r,
p a r t i c u l a r l y a f t e r he comprehended the nature
of th e t e s t .
2. As a r e s u l t of th e e x p e rim e n te r’s attem pt to
balance th e two types of stim ulus words p h o n eti
c a l l y , the n e u tra l ones sounded very s im ila r to
d is tu r b in g s tim u li. This may have r e s u lte d in
the s u b je c ts ' responses to n e u tra l words as
though the words were taboo. For example, the
most common in c o rr e c t guess fo r th e word "d itch "
was " b i t c h . " R iess had p rev io u sly found t h a t
homophones of words conditioned w ith e l e c t r i c
shock e l i c i t e d an in c re a se of 94,5 per cent mean-
g ain in EDR's (56). i
3. The assum ption in t h i s in v e s tig a tio n t h a t words j
co n sid ered d is tu rb in g would e l i c i t s i g n i f i c a n t l y ,
h ig h er EDR's upon r e c o g n itio n th an the words
assumed n e u tr a l by th e experim enter was in v a lid , i
The responses did not s y s te m a tic a lly d i f f e r p rio r
to or upon r e c o g n itio n . Perhaps a p i l o t study
would have in d ic a te d th e d if fe re n c e of autonomic'
a c t i v i t y a t h ig h er th an th re s h o ld le v e ls . There!
i
was, of course, no assurance t h a t th e se fin d in g s
would be d u p lic a te d when th e th r e s h o ld was
reached using an ascending lim its system.
CHAPTER V
SUM M ARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Summary
The purpose of t h i s study was to in v e s tig a te the-
e f f e c t s of r e p r e s s io n on th e a u d ito ry p e rc e p tio n of words.
The r e s u l t s of the extreme e f f e c t s of t h i s type of r e p r e s
sio n have been d escrib e d in some l i t e r a t u r e as negative
h a l lu c i n a tio n s . Three asp e c ts of th e concept of p e rc e p tu a l
r e p r e s s io n were t e s t e d . The th re e hypotheses are as f o l
lows:
1. The th re s h o ld s fo r th e c o rre c t re c o g n itio n of
d is tu rb in g words are h ig h er than th e c o r re c t
re c o g n itio n th re sh o ld s of n e u tra l words.
2. The in c o rr e c t guesses of d is tu rb in g words a t
p re re c o g n itio n exposures are le s s ac c u ra te than
the in c o r r e c t guesses of n e u tra l words a t pre-
re c o g n itio n exposures.
3. The ele ctro d e rm a l resp o n ses to d is tu rb in g words
a t p re re c o g n itio n exposures are g r e a te r th a n the
e le ctro d e rm a l responses t o n e u tra l words a t pre
re c o g n itio n exposures.
A study of th e previous in v e s tig a tio n s of th e prob
lem r e s u l t s in two co n c lu sio n s: ( 1 ) th e fin d in g s of th e
57
i n v e s t i g a t i o n c o n t r a d ic t each o th e r, and (2 ) each of the
in v e s tig a tio n s is in c o n c lu siv e due to ex p e rim en tal e r r o r s .
The experim ent was designed t o measure th e v e rb a l
and e le c tro d e rm a l resp o n se s of t h i r t y young male s u b je c ts
to tw elve stim u lu s words. The words were p re se n te d a u d i
t o r i a l l y , employing th e ascending l i m i t s methods. Four of
th e words were found by an i n v e s t i g a t i o n t o be among th e
most d is tu r b in g contained in a c o l l e g i a t e d ic tio n a r y . They
served as th e independent v a r ia b le f o r th e t e s t s of th e hy
p o th e se s. The rem aining e ig h t words were matched w ith th e
dependent v a r ia b le s ti m u li w ith re g a rd to p h o n etic s t r u c
tu r e and word le n g th . They were assumed t o be n e u t r a l.
H alf of each type of word was p re se n te d on two se p a ra te
days in a uniform manner in order to measure th e in flu e n c e
of th e o r i g i n a l s e t of th e s u b je c ts on th e f i r s t day of
t e s t i n g . A fte r th e te rm in a tio n of th e t e s t fo r each d is
tu rb in g word, th e s u b je c ts were in te r r o g a t e d in order to
d e te c t p u rp o sely w ith h e ld v e rb a l r e s p l i e s . A fte r a minimum
d u r a tio n of th re e weeks fo llo w in g th e experim ent, th e sub
j e c t s were t e s t e d by q u e s tio n n a ire on th e fre q u en cy -recen cy
of usage of each stim u lu s word. The r a t i n g s were combined
w ith Thorndike-Lorge counts to e s t a b l i s h a measure of th e
frequency and recency of usage of th e stim u lu s words by th e
s u b je c ts .
Conclusions
A com parison of th e th r e s h o ld s f o r c o r r e c t re c o g n i
t i o n of d is tu r b in g words w ith those of n e u tr a l words did j
not in d ic a te a s i g n i f i c a n t d if f e r e n c e . D iffe re n c e s among
th r e s h o ld s f o r th e stim u lu s words were found to be a func
t i o n of frequency and recency of t h e i r usage by th e sub
j e c t s . I f a p e rc e iv e r has th e tendency t o ward o ff d is
tu r b in g s t i m u l i , th e n Anna Freud is c o r r e c t when she s t a t e s
t h a t n o n -p sy ch o tic a d u lts w i l l not employ t h i s mechanism
because i t i n t e r f e r e d w ith r e a l i t y t e s t i n g (2 4 :8 5 -8 6 ).
However, Anna F re u d 's th e o ry does not deny t h a t a
normal a d u lt may attem p t t o p r o te c t h im se lf from d is tu rb in g
s ti m u li even though he does not allow th e r e p r e s s io n to
e le v a te h is p e r c e p tu a l th re s h o ld fo r th e stim u lu s s i g n i f i
c a n tly . A com parison of th e in c o r r e c t guesses a t prerecog
n i t i o n exposures of d is tu rb in g words w ith th o se of n e u tr a l
words in d ic a te d t h a t th e guesses of th e d is tu r b in g s ti m u li
were s i g n i f i c a n t l y le s s a c c u ra te th a n th e guesses of n e u tr a l
words. When p r e r e c o g n itio n p e rc e p tu a l accuracy is measured;
by whether p e rc e p tu a l r e g r e s s i o n o c c u rs, th e tendency to
ward o ff d is tu r b in g s tim u li i s dem onstrated a t th e 2 .5 per
cen t le v e l of s ig n i f ic a n c e .
Insomuch as an a ttem p t t o ward o f f th e d is tu r b in g
s tim u li a t p r e re c o g n itio n exposures was in d ic a te d , i t was
h y p o th e size d t h a t th e s u b j e c t 's e le c tro d e rm a l resp o n se s t o
d is tu r b in g words a t p re r e c o g n itio n exposures are g r e a te r
th an th e e le c tro d e rm a l resp o n ses t o n e u tra l words a t pre
r e c o g n itio n exposures. A comparison of th e e le c tro d e rm a l
resp o n se s of th e two s e ts of words in d ic a te d no s i g n i f i c a n t
d if f e r e n c e s . However, th e t e s t of t h i s h y p o th e sis was not
c o n c lu s iv e .
From d a ta provided by th e in v e s t i g a t i o n , s e v e r a l in
fe re n c e s were drawn. They are enumerated below, w ith a
summary re g a rd in g th e ex p e rim en ta l problem.
1. Normal in d iv id u a ls do not p r o te c t them selves
from d is t u r b in g e x t e r n a l s ti m u la tio n v ia percep
t u a l d efen se. In o th e r words, d is tu r b in g stim u
l i need not be p re se n te d w ith more i n t e n s i t y
th a n n e u t r a l s tim u li in order t o be reco g n ized
by a normal l i s t e n e r .
2 . P revious in v e s t i g a t i o n s which have r e p o rte d a
d if f e r e n c e between th e th r e s h o ld s of r e c o g n itio n
f o r d is tu r b in g and n e u t r a l words have had t h e i r
d ata confounded due t o f a c t o r s o th e r th a n th e
d is tu r b in g q u a lity of th e dependent v a r i a b l e .
The confusing f a c t o r s could have been the s e t of
th e s u b je c ts , resp o n ses w ith h e ld by th e s u b je c ts
a n d /o r th e a b i l i t y of th e experim enter to de
term ine th e fre q u en cy -rece n cy of usage of the
stim u lu s words by th e s u b je c ts .
3. The th r e e f a c t o r s , mentioned above, which con-
found in v e s tig a tio n s of th e p e rc e p tu a l defense
h y p o th esis can be c o n tro lle d in an experim ent.
P re cau tio n s suggested by Howes and Solomon r e
duce th e a f f e c t s of th e s e t of the s u b je c ts .
The same experim ental procedure in a d d itio n to
i n te r r o g a t io n of the s u b je c ts ren d ers th e te n
dency of th e s u b je c ts to w ithhold responses too
i n e f f e c t u a l to confound the d a ta . The formula
to determ ine the frequency-recency of word usage
d e sc rib ed in Chapter IV, S e ctio n A, y ie ld s v a lid
e s tim a te s of word usage.
A tendency fo r normal l i s t e n e r s to ward o ff d is
tu rb in g s tim u li is dem onstrated by the subcep-
ti o n process fin d in g s of the in v e s tig a tio n . The
r e s u l t s of th e study concur w ith th e only other
in v e s tig a tio n , to th e w r i t e r 's knowledge, of the
subception process h y p o th e sis. The conclusion
of both s tu d ie s was t h a t th e accuracy of guesses
to p re re c o g n itio n p re s e n ta tio n s of d is tu rb in g
stim ulus words was s i g n i f i c a n t l y le s s a c c u ra te
than th e guesses to p re re c o g n itio n exposures to
n e u tra l words. The method of determ ining "ac
curacy" d if fe r e d between th e two i n v e s tig a tio n s .
The in fe re n c e was drawn t h a t through some method
t h a t n e ith e r McGinnies nor the w r ite r f e l t qual
i f i e d to sp ecu la te upon t h a t in d iv id u a ls respond
with a re p re s s iv e mechanism to in fo rm atio n in
s u f f i c i e n t to allow re c o g n itio n by th e in d iv i
d u al. In order fo r r e p r e s s io n to be summoned,
the l i s t e n e r must d is c rim in a te between d is tu r b
ing and n e u tra l s tim u li w ith le s s in fo rm atio n
th an is re q u ire d fo r re c o g n itio n of th e s tim u li.
6 . This i n v e s tig a tio n did not provide any data us
ing e le c tro d e rm a l responses which allow a fu r
th e r understanding of the p e rc e p tu a l process
r e f e r r e d to as the su b cep tio n e f f e c t . The a t
tempt to gain evidence on the subception e f f e c t
was in c o n c lu siv e.
In view of th e f o u rth p o in t above, t h i s in v e s tig a
t i o n was summarized as v e rify in g w ith q u alificatio n -^ F en i-
chel*s statem ent t h a t "Whenever a stim ulus gives r i s e to
p a in fu l f e e l in g s , a tendency is developed . . . to ward
o ff th e s tim u lu s ." (21:131).
■^•Point 1 above.
i
A P P E N D I X E S
APPENDIX A
TEST OF DISTURBABILITY OF W ORDS
APPENDIX A
TEST OF DISTURBABILITY OF W ORDS
Q u estio n n aire
P lease do not sig n your name on t h i s q u e s tio n n a ire .
W e are i n t e r e s t e d in your answers only as a member of the
group. I f you do not want to complete t h i s q u e s tio n n a ire ,
please do not do so. Your o b je c tio n w i l l be understood and
re s p e c te d .
L iste d below are t h i r t y words s e le c te d from Web
s t e r ^ New C o lle g ia te D ic tio n a ry , because they are "believed
to arouse emotion. In order to in v e s tig a te the p o ssib le
causes of psychogenic d e a fn e ss, i t is n ecessary to d e te r
mine the r e l a t i v e s tr e n g th of th e se words to e l i c i t emo
t i o n a l resp o n ses from a person who hears them.
Please r a t e th e se words according to the in s t r u c
tio n s below on the b a s is of how th e se words a f f e c t you when
you hear them.
Thank you fo r your co -o p e ra tio n .
Place th e a p p ro p ria te symbol a f t e r the word de
sc rib e d .
+4 ss the word which d is tu rb s you most.
+3 = th e two most d is tu rb in g words excluding the one
a lre a d y marked.
+2 = the th r e e most d is tu rb in g words excluding those
a lre a d y marked.
+1 = the four most d is tu rb in g words excluding those
a lre a d y marked.
-4 - the one l e a s t d is tu rb in g word.
-3 = the two l e a s t d is tu rb in g words excluding one
alre a d y marked.
- 2 - th e th re e l e a s t d is tu rb in g words excluding any
a lre a d y marked.
-1 = the four l e a s t d is tu rb in g words excluding any
a lre a d y marked.
65
b itc h
b i t e .
blood
cheat
d i r t ,
f a i l ,
f ig h t
f i l t h
g u i l t
h a t e .
11. k i l l .
12. knife
13. l i a r .
14. lic k .
15. pain.
16. pimp.
17. prick
18. puke.
19. p u s..
20. queer
21. rape
22. screw
23. sex
24. s lu t
25. s tin k
26. suck
27. t h i e f
28. t i t
29. whip
30. whore
67'
TABLE 6
RESULTS OF QUESTIONNAIRE TO DETERMINE
THE AM OUNT OF DISTURBABILITY OF W ORDS
LISTED IN A COLLEGIATE DICTIONARY
Word
Rated
D is tu r b a b ility
1. pimp +57
2 . p rick + 52
3. rape +51
4. whore +46
5. s lu t +45
6 . b itc h +39
7. screw +38
8 . puke + 35
9. t i t +30
10. suck + 28
11. queer + 19
12. pus + 17
13. f i l t h + 4
14. stin k - 1
15. k i l l - 3
16. t h i e f - 8
17. lic k -15
18. sex -17
19. l i a r -20
20. pain -21
21. cheat -22
22. hate -22
23. knife -22
24. whip -24
25. f ig h t -26
26. g u i l t -26
27. blood -48
28. b ite -54 '•
29. d i r t -57
30. f a i l -62
i
i
APPENDIX B
EXPERIMENTAL INSTRUCTIONS
APPENDIX B
EXPERIMENTAL INSTRUCTIONS
I n s tr u c tio n s
Purpose
This t e s t was designed to determ ine th re e th in g s :
1. How loud c e r t a i n words must be before the
l i s t e n e r hears them w ell enough to understand
them.
2. How close the l i s t e n e r can come to guessing
what th e words are when the words are loud
enough to hear but not loud enough to understand.
3. How th e l i s t e n e r ' s nervous system responds to
words when the words are loud enough to hear but
not loud enough to understand. This is done by
measuring the amount of skin p e r s p ir a t io n a t the
palm of the hand.
The words used in t h i s experim ent are ones which you
may not hear every day. However, they are words which are
e a s i l y understood. Examples of t h i s type of word a re :
" b a r n ," " p rin c e ," "w harf," and "zoo."
This experim ent in no way i s concerned w ith your per
s o n a lity , c h a ra c te r, or i n t e l l i g e n c e . I t is simply a t e s t
to e s t a b l i s h th re s h o ld s of c e r t a in words fo r normal a d u lt
males.
Procedure j
1. The blue warning l i g h t w ill go on.
i
2. From two to e ig h t seconds l a t e r you w i l l hear a j
word through the loudspeaker.
3. You must remain q u ie t fo r se v e ra l seconds so
your skin response can be measured w ithout d is
tu rb a n c e .
6.9
70
4. I f you are not c e r t a in of th e word, please guess
I f you b eliev e i t could have been one of sever
a l words, please t e l l th e experim enter a l l of
the p o ssib le words.
This procedure fo r each word i s re p ea ted u n t i l the
word i s understood by you. Then the same procedure is used
fo r th e next word.
Because of th e number of words to be used, which is
tw elve, th e t e s t i s given in two p e rio d s. This is done to
prevent f a tig u e which a f f e c t s h e a rin g . You w ill take h a lf
of the t e s t today and th e o th er h a lf a t a l a t e r tim e. The
same type of words are used both p e rio d s.
APPENDIX C
TEST OF FREQUENCY-RECENCY OF USAGE
QUESTIONNAIRE AND RESULTS
APPENDIX C
TEST OF FREQUENCY-RECENCY OF USAGE
QUESTIONNAIRE AND RESULTS
Test of Frequency of Usage Q u estio n n aire
This q u e s tio n n a ire is designed to determ ine the
r e l a t i v e frequency w ith which you hear the below l i s t e d
words. Do not mark any word more th an once.
P lease w rite a
+3 a f t e r the word you hear most o fte n .
-3 a f t e r th e word you hear l e a s t o fte n .
+2 a f t e r the two words you hear most o fte n ,
excluding tHe one a lre a d y marked w ith a - 3 .
- 2 a f t e r th e two words you hear l e a s t o fte n ,
excluding the one a lre ad y marked w ith a - 3 .
*•1 a f t e r the th re e words you hear most fre q u e n t
ly excluding those a lre a d y marked.
-1 a f t e r the th re e words you hear l e a s t f r e
q u en tly excluding those alre a d y marked.
When you have completed t h i s q u e s tio n n a ire , each
word should have one plus or minus number assig n ed t o i t .
Bib Pimp ___________
B itch Rake
D itch ___________ Rape
Hose _____________ Snore
Limp _ Tape
Pimp ____________ Whore
72
TABLE 7
RESULTS OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE
TO DETERMINE THE FREQUENCY
OF USAGE OF THE
STIMULUS W ORDS
Q u estio n n aire ,,
Word R e su lts
1. B itch + 2.25
2 . Rape + 1.00
3. Tape +■0.74
4. Hose + 0.55
5. Whore + 0.54
6 . P i l l + 0. 53
7. D itch + 0.07
8 . Limp -0 .3 1
9. Pimp -0 .4 7
10. Snore -0 .7 2
11. Rake
o
o
*
i
12. Bib -2 .4 8
APPENDIX D
M EAN AVERAGE OF SUBJECTS' EDR'S
TO STIMULUS W ORDS
APPENDIX D
TABLE 8
M EAN AVERAGE OF SUBJECTS1 EDR'S
TO STIMULUS W ORDS ■
J i r s t Day Second Day
1
P i l l
2
B itch
3
Limp
4
Rape
1
Whore
2
Bib
3
Pimp
4
Rake
S 1 0 82 0 61 355 138 257 400
S 2 106 75 89 89
405 310 391 336
S 3 306 237 107 177 281 282 200 100
S 4 180 217 267 363 356 184 133 171
S 5 68 123 147 33 241 153
159 171
S 6 226 199 363 268 328 176 279 230
S 7 125 390 449 167 709 280 114 201
S 8 648 449 176 98 470 461 288 167
S 9 853 1,325 768 913 751 713 294 456
S10 864 1,192 611 1,015 590 886 450 402
S ll 0 187 171 228 301 410 506 494
S12 151 192 93 70 166 50 45 48
3,527 4,668 3,241 3,482 4,953 4,043 3 ,116 3,176
I
75
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i
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An Experimental Investigation Of Repression Of The Auditory Perception Ofdisturbing Words As Indicated By Verbal And Electrodermal Responses
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