We investigated the benefits of two ways to use flashcards to perform retrieval practice: alone versus with a partner. In three experiments, undergraduate students learned word-definition pairs using flashcards alone (Individual condition) or with another student (Paired condition). Participants then made global judgments of learning (gJOLs;…

Interim testing of studied information, compared with restudying or no treatment, facilitates subsequent learning and retention of new information--"the forward testing effect." Previous research exploring this effect has shown that interim testing of studied information from a given domain enhances subsequent learning and retention of…

This study addressed two areas of inquiry: 1) the influence of enlisting three underlying cognitive learning processes (CLPs) in alphabet learning, and 2) order effects for letter name and letter sound instruction. Alphabet instruction was designed to enlist Paired Associate Learning (PAL) only, PAL plus Orthographic Learning (OL), or PAL plus…

Retrieving studied materials often enhances subsequent learning of new materials (Pastötter & Bäuml, 2014). However, retrieval has also been shown to impair new learning (Finn & Roediger, 2013). In this article, we attempted to determine when retrieval enhances and when it impairs new learning. We argue that testing impairs new learning…

The facilitative effect of retrieval practice, or testing, on the probability of later retrieval has been the focus of much recent empirical research. A lesser known benefit of retrieval practice is that it may also enhance the ability of a learner to benefit from a subsequent restudy opportunity. This facilitative effect of retrieval practice on…

The present experiments examined perceptual specificity effects using a rereading paradigm. Eye movements were monitored while participants read the same target word twice, in two different low-constraint sentence frames. The congruency of perceptual processing was manipulated by either presenting the target word in the same distortion typography…

The literature of antonymy, though disjointed and inconclusive, has found that opposition is important to development, learning, psychological health, and creativity. To investigate the role of dialectics in cognitive processes and human learning, four empirical studies were undertaken. In study one, to investigate the dialectic process in…

A paired-associate task was given to 119 middle-class fourth and fifth graders to investigate the nature and development of mediational strategies in children's learning. Imagery and sentence mediators which linked the stimuli and responses of pictorial paired associates were either provided by an experimenter or generated by the children. While…

The relationship between complexity of learning strategy and performance of paired associate learning of 29 verbally gifted students (9-14 years old) was investigated. A comparison of strategies with those reported by nongifted students did not disclose qualitative differences. Gifted subjects did demonstrate great speed in acquiring and retaining…

Two experiments on how symmetrical difficulty factors (word familiarity and concreteness) affect stages of associative learning are reported. Learning parameters reacted in a qualitatively similar manner to stimulus and response manipulations. Paired associate items are represented in memory as unitary traces rather than as separate stimulus and…

Fourth, sixth, and eighth grade students studied a word learning task and were tested on three consecutive days. Expectancy statements were made by half the subjects. These results seemingly contradict previous research, but the contradiction was explained in terms of task complexity. Expectations were found to be motivational. (Author/BW)

Three paired-associate learning studies were designed to test the hypothesis that individual differences in learning speed are determined by the types of elaborative strategies used by learners during acquisition. Slow learners generate fewer elaborators and produce less effective elaborators, even when using the same strategy as fast learners.…

A conceptual framework of a process by which persons assess and express levels of sureness in the correctness of responses which they anticipate making--or having already made but not yet received knowledge of results--is proposed. It is hypothesized that the rate at which a person's behavior is modified by knowledge of results is affected by 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…

The effects of rate repetition, self-generated visualization, and supplied visuals on the memorization of concrete noun-word pairs were investigated using 27 gifted children in grades four to six. The hypothesis that self-generated imagery techniques would be superior to supplied visuals was not supported. (Author/PN)