Rorschach Productivity as Related to Verbal Reinforcement

Summary

The Rorschach was administered to four groups of 25 college Ss equated for verbal intelligence. A continuous reinforcement group, a human content reinforcement group, and an animal content reinforcement group were compared with a no reinforcement control group. Verbal reinforcement applied after each response significantly increased total R for Ss both aware and unaware of the response-reinforcement contingency. In the human and animal content reinforcement groups, verbal reinforcement led to increased human and animal responses respectively, but only for Ss aware of the reinforcement contingency. Implications for the projective test situation were discussed in terms of E bias and S conformity to experimental demands.