Conditioning a Discriminated Eyeblink Response to the “Truth Value” of Statements

Abstract

Two experiments examined the conditioning of a discriminated eyeblink response to the abstract property of “truthfulness” in visually presented verbal statements. Learning was assessed with a measure of change in eyelid activity following conditioned stimulus (CS) presentations. In the first experiment, a list of randomized statements was presented, half of which were true and half of which were false. Each false statement in this experiment was paired with a corneal air puff (the US). The second experiment used the same procedure to compare true and false statements as conditioned stimuli, except it varied the range of CS–US intervals employed. The results support previous findings by showing that the truth value of presented statements can serve as a conditioned stimulus in an eyeblink conditioning procedure, and that both true and false statements can serve as conditioned stimuli. The results also show that the interstimulus interval is an important factor in such conditioning. Implications for future research, and the interpretation of previous studies exploring similar conditioning, are discussed.

Appendix 1: Trial Statements

Trial	Statement	Truth Value
1	You are sitting in a chair	TRUE
2	The world is round	TRUE
3	You are the Queen of England	FALSE
4	Books have pages	TRUE
5	You own a kangaroo	FALSE
6	Acorns are nuts	TRUE
7	Circles are round	TRUE
8	This room has a desk	TRUE
9	Elephants have scales	FALSE
10	This room is in a building	TRUE
11	The sun is smaller than the earth	FALSE
12	Humans are green	FALSE
13	This room has windows	FALSE
14	The world is flat	FALSE
15	Sheep have wool	TRUE
16	Mice are smaller than cats	TRUE
17	You eat rocks	FALSE
18	Beer is a liquid	TRUE
19	Lead is heavier than paper	TRUE
20	Days are longer than weeks	FALSE
21	Swansea is in China	FALSE
22	Strawberries are fruits	TRUE
23	You are in Australia	FALSE
24	Grass is blue	FALSE
25	This room has computers	TRUE
26	Pigeons are birds	TRUE
27	You live in an igloo	FALSE
28	Humans are plants	FALSE
29	Squirrels are birds	FALSE
30	Water is a liquid	TRUE
31	Pigs can fly	FALSE
32	Flowers are reptiles	FALSE
33	The sun orbits the earth	FALSE
34	Squirrels climb trees	TRUE
35	Rocks are alive	FALSE
36	This room is silent	FALSE
37	Birds have feathers	TRUE
38	Albert Einstein was a physicist	TRUE
39	You are an astronaut	FALSE
40	You are looking at a computer	TRUE
41	Penguins are reptiles	FALSE
42	Lead is worth more than gold	FALSE
43	Humans lay eggs	FALSE
44	This room has walls	TRUE
45	Carrots are vegetables	TRUE
46	Swansea has beaches	TRUE
47	Humans have feathers	FALSE
48	Birds have wings	TRUE
49	Libraries have books	TRUE
50	You own an island	FALSE
51	Sheep are mammals	TRUE
52	Humans need food to survive	TRUE
53	Jesus was a penguin	FALSE
54	London is in the U.K.	TRUE
55	You are younger than 70	TRUE
56	You are sitting on a couch	FALSE
57	You have a head	TRUE
58	Roses are flowers	TRUE
59	Paper is heavier than lead	FALSE
60	The earth is spinning	TRUE
61	Bananas are yellow	TRUE
62	You are a tree	FALSE
63	London is in Wales	FALSE
64	Violins are instruments	TRUE
65	You are a student	TRUE
66	Paris is in America	FALSE
67	Money grows on trees	FALSE
68	Red is a color	TRUE
69	You are a sausage	FALSE
70	Cats are larger than horses	FALSE
71	China is in Asia	TRUE
72	The earth orbits the moon	FALSE
73	Water is heavier than air	TRUE
74	You are a human	TRUE
75	Snow is white	TRUE
76	You are studying dentistry	FALSE
77	You are in Wales	TRUE
78	Bananas are purple	FALSE
79	The sun is hot	TRUE
80	Cars have wheels	TRUE
81	Humans live under water	FALSE
82	The sky is blue	TRUE
83	Lead is heavier than wood	TRUE
84	Triangles have three sides	TRUE
85	This room is full of water	FALSE
86	Swansea is in Wales	TRUE
87	Fish live in water	TRUE
88	Salt tastes sweet	FALSE
89	Humans are reptiles	FALSE
90	Chickens lay eggs	TRUE
91	London is in China	FALSE
92	You have three eyes	FALSE
93	You sleep in a bed	TRUE
94	Humans need air	TRUE
95	You sleep in a pile of hay	FALSE
96	Keyboards have buttons	TRUE
97	Pens have ink	FALSE
98	Fire is cold	FALSE
99	Humans are mortal	TRUE
100	This room has no ceiling	FALSE