Verbal mediation in paired-associate and serial learning

Abstract

On the basis of circumstantial evidence gleaned largely from the recent literature on transfer between paired-associate (PA) and serial learning, it was hypothesized that one difference between PA and serial learning involves the relative importance of verbal mediational processes. It was suggested that mediated associative processes play a more prominent role in PA learning than in serial learning. The Ss used to investigate this hypothesis were mentally retarded adults, in whom the tendency spontaneously to use verbal mediators seemed to be minimal. In Exp. I 20 Ss learned PA tasks composed of pictures of common objects; they learned either with or without instructions intended to prompt the use of verbal mediation. Under mediation instructions the Ss learned PA lists much faster than they did without such instructions. In Exp. II four groups of retarded Ss (total N = 40), matched for IQ, were divided into four experimental conditions: (1) serial task with mediation instructions; (2) serial task without mediation instructions; (3) PA task with mediation instructions; and (4) PA task without mediation instructions. It was found that the mediation instructions greatly facilitated PA learning but had no effect whatsoever on serial learning. Retest of the same Ss approximately 10 days later, without mediation instructions and using equivalent forms of the PA learning task, revealed little if any tendency for the retarded Ss to retain the technique of using verbal mediation in PA learning.