Anomalies in covert conditioning.

Abstract

The covert conditioning approach has received much empirical support. Despite the utility of this approach, a number of anomalies (or methodological problems) have been considered in the past. This study describes three anomalies in covert conditioning which have received little attention: (1) the difficulty in assessing the application of the covert conditioning technique by the client, (2) the difficulty in explaining client's failures during use of the technique in terms of either problems with the therapist's instructions regarding the use of the technique or problems with the client's inability to imagine the scene, and (3) the use of single-case experimental designs in the evaluation of the effectiveness of covert conditioning techniques seems to violate the experimental format of such designs.