They then did the same with a list of words presented orally, all of which set the stage for the critical phase of the experiment which was portrayed as an assessment of subjects' ability to learn via both visual and auditory channels at once.
During this phase, subjects were exposed visually to a set of nationality names, specifically Dutch and Swedish.
Approximately one second after the nationality appeared on the screen, the experimenter announced a word aloud.
Most of these latter words, none of which were repeated, were neutral (e.g., chair, with, twelve).
When the conditioning phase was completed, the subjects were first asked to recall the words that had been presented visually and then to evaluate them, presumably because how they felt about those words might have affected their learning.