ABSTRACT
Several classes of verbal and non-verbal response have been employed effectively as social reinforcers in experiments on verbal conditioning. Recent research on three such categories - smiles, positive head nods and brief verbal recognitions such as 'mm-hmm' - has indicated that they play similar roles in free social interaction. These responses were more often emitted by subjects motivated to seek approval from peers than by control groups; and the responses tended to bring about approving reactions from the peers to whom they were directed. The interviewer presented questions from a standard list to the subject over a five-minute period. The interview consisted in brief inquiries, and follow-up probes, into events relevant to the daily lives of the subjects. Working definitions of the non-verbal responses and the simple observational procedures for recording them are presented elsewhere. The observer also operated a tape recorder from which transcriptions could be made of verbal responses in the interviews.
