Individual differences among repressors and sensitizers in conceptual skills

Sensitizers were hypothesized to perform significantly better than repressors on 11 concept acquisition tasks. Differences between repression-sensitization (R-S) groups (n = 48), as measured by the Byrne R-S scale, were found to be significant on several of these tasks. As compared with repressors, sensitizers more rapidly acquired: (a) A disjunctive nonverbal concept, when a set for conjunctive concepts had to be broken (p < .05); and (b) Two verbal concepts (p < .05). Medium scoring participants performed significantly better than repressors in acquiring: (a) Nonverbal disjunctive concepts (p < .05); and (b) Verbal concepts (p < .05). R-S results are discussed with reference to conceptual skills and “cognitive flexibility”.