was offered so as to justify to the subjects the use of electric shocks. Each experiment required the participation of three individuals: the experimenter, played by a high-school teacher; the learner, played by an accountant; and the teacher, always played by the real or true subject and chosen by a fixed draw. The experimenter explained the procedure, and the learner was then placed in an electric-chair apparatus. An elaborate description was given of the nature of the task about to be learned and about the punishment delivery system.
The teacher was instructed to read a series of word pairs to the learner, after which he or she was to read the first word of a pair and four possible associations. The learner then indicated which of the four associations were to be paired with the first word, and the response alternatives consisted
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