Awareness, verbal conditioning and psychophysical misjudgments

The present study evaluated the role of awareness in the verbal conditioning of changes in size estimation. Twenty male Ss were reinforced with “Correct” for each circle diameter estimate that was greater than a preconditioning estimate; twenty Ss were similarly reinforced for each smaller estimate. Subjects who were aware that they changed their estimates in the same direction as the reinforcement showed significant conditioning effects. Subjects not aware of the contingency showed either no effects, or performance changes opposite to the direction of reinforcement but consistent with their erroneous hypotheses. No evidence for learning without awareness was found.