A derived transfer of emotive functions as a means of establishing differential preferences for soft drinks

In Experiment 1, 36 subjects were exposed to a stimulus equivalence procedu re during which they were trained to match the two nonsense syllables VEK a nd ZID to the emotive words CANCER and HOLIDAYS, respectively, and to match the product labels BRAND X and BRAND Y to the nonsense syllables. The subj ects were then tested for equivalence responding (e.g., CANCER --> BRAND X, and HOLIDAYS --> BRAND Y). Finally subjects were presented with two sample s of the same cola-based drink, one labeled BRAND X and the other labeled B RAND Y. Subjects were required to rate the colas for pleasantness. A signif icant difference in terms of the ratings of the pleasantness of the colas w as found for the group who passed the equivalence test. The group of subjec ts who failed the equivalence test showed no significant difference in thei r ratings of the colas. Experiment 2 demonstrated that exposure to the equi valence test was not a prerequisite for the transfer of preference function s. Experiment 3 demonstrated that it is possible to reverse subjects' prefe rences for the two colas by reversing the trained conditional discriminatio ns. Furthermore, unlike the previous two experiments, Experiment 3 assessed the preference functions for the emotive words before and after the condit ional discrimination training and transfer testing.