It was found in a retention test that progressive elaboration was superior to single-response elaboration, as in the Bower and Reitman (1972) study; the present study was an extension of that Bower and Reitman study. (Author/RK)

Two experiments investigate the effects of mnemonic imagery on paired associate learning and retention of deaf and hearing children from verbally deficient populations. Interference with learning was built into both experiments by using lists of similar stimulus words; control groups learned lists with low stimulus similarity. (DP)

Noun pairs were learned by younger and older adults. Anticipation and presentation intervals were manipulated, and there were no-imagery, experimenter-provided imagery, and self-generated imagery instructions. Older subjects generated and used imagery with the same facility as younger subjects, although retrieval time was longer. (GO)

Results show that the most efficient way to learn a series of lists is to form a new interactive image for each new response to a given stimulus, but the most efficient way to retain the lists is to repeat the previous response items while each new list is being learned. (Author)

A skilled cognitive theorist might help behaviorists resolve inconsistencies found from their experimentation with imaginal mnemonics in paired-associate and serial learning tasks. Iconic cognition which relegates verbal processes to short-term storage and output systems is inadequate to explain the verbal coding and elaboration processes…