Peter M. Cross’s research while affiliated with Virginia Tech and other places

Conducted 2 experiments in paired-associate learning in which 20 undergraduates were permitted to choose their responses from alternatives following the procedure of L. C. Perlmuter, R. A. Monty, and G. A. Kimble . The other 20 Ss were forced to learn the responses chosen by their yoked masters. Both groups of Ss were forced to learn an interposed A-C list following the choice-force procedure but prior to learning the A-B list. The performance of force Ss was reliably superior to that of choice Ss on A-C; however, when both groups learned A-B, the typical facilitative effect of choice was disturbed. In Exp II with 40 undergraduates, interposing a C-D list produced equivalent performance in both groups on C-D. Similarly, the facilitative effect of choice was not observed on the subsequent A-B trials. The degraded performance of choice Ss is discussed in terms of frustration as an additional source of motivation.