A study was performed to investigate the storage and retrieval dynamics that occur during paired-associate acquisition by means of the storage-retrieval separation technique discussed recently by Chechile & Meyer (1976). Thirty subjects learned an 18-item paired-associate list to a criterion of three perfect trials. In the test phase of each…

Two studies were performed to investigate the effects of material and task variations in the acquisition of cognitive learning strategies. Groups of undergraduate students were taught to use mental imagery, meaningful elaboration, and grouping. The type of training task or the order of training and test materials differed for each of the…

REINFORCEMENT CONCEPTS DERIVED LARGELY FROM RESEARCH OF SUBHUMAN SUBJECTS WERE TESTED FOR APPLICABILITY TO HUMAN-LEARNING SITUATIONS SIMILAR TO THOSE THAT OCCUR IN SCHOOLS. A SERIES OF EXPLORATORY STUDIES CONDUCTED IS DESCRIBED IN PART II OF THIS REPORT. IN PART III, TWO EXPERIMENTS CONDUCTED TO DETERMINE THE REINFORCING VALUE OF DIFFERENT STIMULI…

People sometimes forget a name or a word, and are plagued by the feeling that the sought-for word is somewhere in memory but not immediately available. The frequent description of this tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) phenomenon as subthreshold memory traces is challenged by data showing that TOT genesis and TOT recovery are distinct processes. In a verbal…

Heart rate change was used as the index of the orienting response (OR) of 102 kindergarten children. Heart rate change was measured by recording heart rate upon the presentation of tones. 15 similar tones followed by a different, 16th tone, were used. From this data the children were divided into high, medium, or low orientors. Following the…

In order to investigate the effect of reinforcement on learning, 21 disadvantaged black children, 4 to 5 years of age, were divided among three treatment groups. Group I children received only feedback (information) as to the correctness or incorrectness of their responses. Group II children received a raisin for each correct response, and group…

Heart rate change was used as the index of the orienting response (OR) of 102 kindergarten children. Heart rate change was measured by recording heart rate upon the presentation of tones. 15 similar tones followed by a different, 16th tone, were used. From this data the children were divided into high, medium, or low orientors. Following the…

These four studies in a series deal with good and poor readers' utilization of selected cues in paired-associate learning. Specific cues considered were color, order of presentation, and verbal mediators. Answers to two basic questions were sought: (1) Do the selected cues have a facilitative effect upon children's paired-associate learning? (2)…

The reports of eight studies testing the effects of elaboration on the learning of children are compiled in this document. Mental elaboration is "thinking while learning" which occurs as the learner actively adds context to the material he is asked to process. Supplied elaboration, included in these studies, occurs when the learner is provided…

An examination of models which have been employed in making predictions about the interference effect is made. It is pointed out that investigators mainly have relied upon the paired-associate model borrowed from classical studies in the field of verbal learning. This basic paradigm, represented as A-B, A-C, A-B, has produced fairly consistent…

THIS STUDY WAS THE SECOND PART OF AN INVESTIGATION OF VERBAL LEARNING IN CHILDREN, THE FIRST PART BEING CONCERNED WITH THE EFFECTS OF AUDITORY, VISUAL, AND COMBINED AUDIOVISUAL PRESENTATIONS UPON THE LEARNING OF VARIOUS KINDS OF MATERIALS IN A PAIRED-ASSOCIATE PARADIGM. THIS PORTION OF THE STUDY INVOLVED AN EXTENSIVE INVESTIGATION OF THE…

AN EXPERIMENT WAS DESIGNED TO TEST THE HYPOTHESIS THAT, WITH MATERIAL OF HIGH MEANINGFULNESS, THE SEMANTIC DIMENSION OF SYNONYMITY (BATTLE-FIGHT) WILL HAVE GREATER IMPACT ON THE LEARNING PROCESS THAN THE DIMENSION OF FORMAL SIMILARITY (BATTLE-BOTTLE). THE LEARNING MATERIALS CONSISTED OF FOUR LISTS OF 12 PAIRS OF TWO-SYLLABLE WORDS. THEY WERE…

The ability of 45 educable mentally retarded children (mean CA-11 years) to acquire and retain a mediational strategy for paired associate learning was demonstrated by a training procedure which consisted of the sequencing of consecutive lists under varying degrees of mediational facilitation. (Author/CL)