Compared were the performances of 45 normal and 45 slow learners (all in junior high school) on a task of original and relearning of paired associate responses as a result of induced success or failure following each response. Ss were asked to pair stick figures with consonant trigrams and then told their performance was either correct or wrong…

Visual and auditory paired-associate learning tasks were presented to 125 fourth grade children (45 learning disabled, 39 border line learning disabled, and 41 nonlearning disabled). The visual task produced a greater number of correct responses than did the auditory task. There were no differences among groups on either task. Scores on the…

Two experiments on unaided and cued recall of sentences presented in context to college students are reported in this study. Key nouns in the sentences were arranged to have uniform surface functions, but to vary independently in deep syntactic category and semantic function. Cued recall for sentences in which the semantic function of actor and…

Words in categories of high and low "flash-card learnability" and semantic congruence (logical congruence and associative congruence) were tested. Other independent variables were sex and intelligence (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test). The dependent variable was time in tenths of seconds, from the first presentation of a word list until the…

The relation of arousal to retention in free learning was studied in a 3 x 2 design employing 48 undergraduates as Ss, three list conditions (high arousal, low arousal, mixed list) and two retention intervals (immediate and 3 days). Arousal value of the words was based on earlier studies. Contrary to previous paired-associate studies, no…

In three experiments employing 60 Ss, arousal was manipulated by white noise during paired-associate, serial, and free learning in an effort to investigate the relationships of arousal and long-term recall. Previous research suggested that high arousal in the paired-associate paradigm leads to better retention relative to low arousal. The present…

Response latency was studied as a measure of associative strength or degree of learning and possible basis for instructional decision making in computer-assisted instruction. Latency was investigated in a paired-associate task as a function of training procedure and information transmission requirements during acquisition and overlearning. The…

The purpose of this study was to determine if implicit associational responses (IARs) occur to individual words presented as pairs for associative learning. The occurrence of IARs was determined by a YES-NO recognition test, and IARs for words presented singly for study provided a base line. For all condition, false recognitions to assumed IARs…

Two conflicting hypotheses were investigated in this study. The first is based on an interference theory of forgetting and assumes that forgetting is largely a function of proactive interference, i.e., a result of interference by previously learned material. The second is based on the improvement of memory due to basic mechanisms that may operate…

Research in paired-associate overlearning sought means of decreasing the variability while maintaining the magnitude of the decrement in stimulus-response latency (SRL). SRL was divided into decision latency (DL) and manual response latency (MRL); it was hypothesized that self-pacing of inter-item intervals would reduce V. Group I received stimuli…

Three studies were conducted to investigate the effects of extended syntactic elaboration conditions on paired-associate learning. Earlier studies have indicated that such conditions have facilitated paired-associate learning of retarded children. Study I involved 30 first grade children. As in previous studies, embedding stimuli to be associated…

With the advance of computers, extensive work has been undertaken in the field of programmed instruction. Much effort has been invested to devise schemes of optimal instruction with respect to suitable criteria. Yet, what is needed is a theory which prescribes how learning can be improved, i.e., a theory of instruction. The present study is…

Attempts to help specify the boundary conditions for use of the recognition-recall method, i.e., recall made conditional upon recognition, and to use this method to evaluate a hypothesis about stimulus-concreteness effects with low-meaningful responses. (Author/RK)

In a study of paired-associate learning and retention, the mode of presentation (pictures versus words) of the stimuli and the responses was varied factorially. Results pose difficulties for current interpretations of picture-word differences. (Editor/RK)

A comparative study of nonverbal MA matched groups of five autistic, five aphasic, five normal and five retarded children (3 to 16 years old) was made on an auditory-visual and a visual-visual paired-associate learning task. (Author)