Experimenter
1
Hello. I'm Mr. Williams.
Thank you for coming.
Please. And you are?
- Fred Miller.
- You must be...?
Wallace. James Wallace.
Great. Please. Have a seat.
Now, before we do anything else,
allow me to pay you.
Please check that both names
are spelled correctly.
You understand that this is yours
simply for coming to the lab.
From now on, no matter what happens,
the money is yours.
I'll have to have you sign a receipt.
There you go.
Now, psychologists have developed
several theories on how humans learn.
Uh, for example, it might help
to reward a person.
Sometimes it helps to punish them.
We do know that punishment...
Thank you very much.
...is a powerful incentive
towards learning.
For example,
However, in fact, we actually know
very little about
the effect of punishment on learning,
because almost no scientific studies
have been done of it on human beings.
Now, one of you will play
the role of learner,
who will receive a mild
punishment
if he answers incorrectly
to a series of questions.
That punishment will be
administered by a teacher.
What kind of punishment
are we talking about?
Well, first, let's determine
which of you
will be learner and which
will be teacher.
If you'll just choose one.
Good.
Teacher.
I guess I'm the learner, huh?
Good.
This is the machine for
generating electric shocks.
Go ahead.
Now, let's set up the learner
to receive some punishment.
If you'll just follow me
into the next room.
- Is it okay if I leave my hat here?
- Yes, that's fine.
Now, you might wanna
remove the jacket.
Go ahead and have a seat.
Now, when you push one of
these four buttons,
this box will signal
telling the teacher how you're
responding to the questions.
What kind of questions?
Multiple choice.
Word pairs. "Strong arm",
"black curtain", and so forth.
Now, we want you to memorize them.
The teacher will first read them
as word pairs,
"strong arm", for example,
then he'll read only the first word,
"strong", followed by
a series of word choices.
"Back, arm, branch, and push".
Your job is to remember
which of those words
was originally paired with
the first word, "strong".
- Arm.
- Right.
Now you would indicate that by
pushing one of these buttons here.
If you had thought it was the
first word I had read, "back",
you'd push this first button here.
If you thought it was
the second word, "arm",
you'd push the second button,
so on and so forth with
third and fourth word choices.
Now, if you get the answer incorrect,
you will receive an electric shock.
Would you please roll up
your right arm sleeve, please?
Would you just help me strap him
in to limit any excess movement?
How far do you think he'll go?
- Now this is connected...
- Too soon to tell.
...to the shock generator
in the next room.
- Electrode paste.
- And electrode paste,
or blisters.
You know, I should say that
in the West Haven VA Hospital,
they determined that I had
Nothing serious, but how
dangerous are these shocks?
Well, although the shocks may be
extremely painful,
they cause
Oh. Okay.
Well, we'll be communicating
from the next room.
The lab coat,
I decided to make it grey.
White would seem too medical.
- Okay.
- Thank you.
Now, if he gets the answer
incorrect, you administer
these switches here. You see?
Each switch has
Now, to give you, the teacher,
an idea of the amount of shock
the learner will be receiving,
we think it's only fair that
you receive a sample shock yourself.
Is that all right?
- Uh-huh.
- Okay, just roll up your sleeve.
Life can only be understood backwards
but it must be lived forwards.
Good.
Now, I'll ask you to close your
eyes and just estimate for me
the amount of volts
you think you're receiving.
Okay, close.
This part, this part's where
the experiment really begins.
Now, if you will just use this scale
here to tell me the amount of volts
you think you received
in the sample shock.
Pfff, one ninety-five?
No, actually, that's incorrect.
It was 45 volts.
All right.
Okay, learner...
I'm going to read you the words,
and then I'm gonna
repeat the first word
and you're going to tell me
the pair for that word. Okay?
He doesn't have a microphone
but he can hear you.
Keep it moving, understand?
Remember that each time he gives
a wrong answer, you move up one
switch on the shock generator.
It is important that you follow
the procedure exactly.
Okay.
Okay, here we go.
"Blue girl. Nice day.
Fat neck. Green ink.
Rich boy. Fast bird.
Blunt arrow. Soft hair.
Cool cave. Gold paint."
In the first word.
"Blue:
Boy, girl, grass, bat."Correct.
"Soft rug..."
- He finds his way into it.
- "Pillow, hair, rat."
With increasing confidence
he finds a rhythm, a groove.
That is incorrect.
Until...
Ninety volts.
- Um...
- Here we go.
"Gold:
Dollar, necklace, moon, paint."
Incorrect. One hundred
and twenty volts. Gold paint.
"Hard:
Stone, head, bread, work."Incorrect.
One hundred and thirty five volts.
Okay.
"Wet:
Night, grass, duck, cloth."Incorrect. One hundred
and fifty volts. Wet duck.
It really hurts.
Mmm.
How do you know
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"Experimenter" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 25 Apr. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/experimenter_7869>.
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