ON THE LEARNING OF MATERIAL CONGRUENT AND INCONGRUENT WITH ATTITUDES.

This article presents a study of the learning of verbal material congruent and incongruent with attitudes. The aim was to select Ss with rather strongly held attitudes and to have them learn verbal materials consistent and inconsistent with these attitudes. The Allport-Vernon Study of Values was given to 319 students in elementary psychology classes and those items pertaining to religious or political-economic attitudes were scored. WA Form R-PE 6 (S) was given to the same groups. Twenty-two Ss were found who met the arbitrary criteria for being designated as Religious (R) S, and 21 Ss for being designated as Political-Economic S. Resulted data are evaluated in two ways, by Chi Square and by the t-test. The evidence summarized in this report suggests that it is easier for Religious Ss to learn paired associates in which the response word is a religious one than it is for them to learn paired associates in which the response word has a political economic meaning. The reverse finding was obtained for Ss with strong political-economic values.