The relation of vicarious to direct instigation and conditioning of electrodermal responses

Abstract.— Three groups with 16 Ss each and run in pairs, participated in a differential, successive components, long interstimulus interval conditioning paradigm with the skin conductance response as dependent variable. For the problem solving group the task was described as guessing which of two lamps (CS₂s) would follow after two different tones (CS₁s). In the observer group they were further informed that the other subject in the pair, the model, would receive shocks at CS+ offset, which actually was the case for the model group. Skin conductance responses were scored in five intervals during and after the non-overlapping presentation of the two CSs with a duration of 8 sec each. The results indicated no differentiation in any interval for the problem-solvers, and parallel instigation to shock and threat of shock, and conditioning in the observer and model groups, with the exception of conditioning in the 1st interval for observers only. The results were interpreted as parallel instigation and conditioning between vicarious and direct learning, the reported difference being due only to different UCS-intensities causing a blocking of first-order conditioning in the model but not in the observer group.