Abstract
Harrison and Matlin have proposed that novel stimuli elicit response competition (rc) which produces a tension state, but that exposure to these novel stimuli establishes response hierarchies, reducing rc and tension, and making the familiar less unpleasant than the novel. Several problems with the rc hypothesis are presented: (1) it does not adequately account for decreasing or inverted U-shaped relationships between frequency and affect; (2) the nature of rc is unclear and counterintuitive; (3) the operational definitions of re and meaningfulness lack discriminant validity; (4) data supporting the re hypothesis have alternate explanations. However, the considerable heuristic value of the hypothesis in generating research and other hypotheses is acknowledged.
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Matlin, M. W., & Stang, D. J. The Pollyanna principle. Unpublished manuscript, State University of New York, College at Geneseo, and Queens College, 1976.
Kreindler, M., & Hakmiller, K. Mere interference and attitudes. Unpublished manuscript, University of Connecticut, 1976.
Ley, R., & Karker, J. Meaningfulness, associative reaction time, recognition latency, and pronunciability in free recall. Paper presented at the -annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Montreal, Canada, August 1973.
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I would like to thank Daniel Berlyne, Charles Cofer, Lynette Glasman, Albert Harrison, Ronald Ley, and Margaret Matlin, who provided helpful comments on a previous draft.
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Stang, D.J. A critical examination of the response competition hypothesis. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 7, 530–532 (1976). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03337273
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03337273