Performance on an Anagram Task as a Function of Experimenter Status and Subject Dogmatism
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of experimenter status and subject dogmatism on anagram solving. The subjects were 90 college students. Only those subjects scoring in the upper or lower thirds on the Dogmatism Scale were utilized. The same experimenter was described as being of either high or low status in each class. In the low status condition, the experimenter was introduced as a student making up an incomplete, while in the high status condition, the experimenter was introduced as a Doctoral student doing research for a Federal Grant Agency. Therefore, four experimental groups were formed in relation to two different levels of dogmatism and two different statuses for the experimenter. A two-way analysis of variance with one covariate {Composite ACT scores to account for intellectual functioning) was computed using subject dogmatism and experimenter status as the independent variables and anagram performance as the dependent variable. It was found that neither the main affects of subject dogmatism and experimenter status, nor the interaction between the two variables were significant. Analysis of a questionnaire designed to evaluate the status manipulation indicated that the manipulation had not been effective. The problem of devising an effective status manipulation for a female experimenter was discussed in relation to future research.