Abstract

SILVA, Luis Hernando; CISNEROS, María Concepción  and  ORTIZ, Gerardo. I did, I described, you followed, I observed your performance: does it change what I describe?. Suma Psicol. [online]. 2014, vol.21, n.1, pp.8-18. ISSN 0121-4381.

We have learned to describe everything we do to indicate the criteria guiding our behavior. These descriptions have a communicative function, since they may tell others what to do. Observing others follow our instructions may also influence the way we give new instructions. To determine whether observing a participant follow an instruction influences the way a new instruction is given, we performed an experiment with 20 participants divided into five groups (n=4). Each participant was faced with a seconddegree matching-to-sample task. On completing the task, participants were asked to give an instruction to another participant (a confederate), who was then expected to perform the same task. Each participant received information on the confederate subject's performance and was asked to give a second description. The information received was analyzed to detect differences between the two groups. Participants in group 1 received no information whatsoever; group 2 received information on the percentage of correct responses; participants in group 3 were shown the confederate's performance in blocks of trials; group 4 observed a list of each trial with correct and incorrect responses, and group 5 observed the confederate's performance in real time. We found that the descriptions became more detailed, increasing in specificity and the number of words used, even in the group that received no feedback. We discuss the potential effect of feedback on the descriptions made with regard to specific instructions and the relevance of later descriptions.

Keywords : Instructions; Contingency; Problem solving; Rule-governed behavior; Matching-to-sample.

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