Recent research suggests that visual-verbal paired associate learning (PAL) may tap a crossmodal associative learning mechanism that plays a distinct role in reading development. However, evidence from children with dyslexia indicates that deficits in visual-verbal PAL are strongly linked to the verbal demands of the task. The primary aim of this…

The domain of figurative language comprehension was used to probe the developmental relation between language and cognition in typically developing individuals and individuals with Williams syndrome. Extending the work of Vosniadou and Ortony, the emergence of nonliteral similarity and category knowledge was investigated in 117 typically…

A total of 82 Chinese 11- and 12-year-olds with and without dyslexia were tested on four paired associate learning (PAL) tasks, phonological awareness, morphological awareness, rapid naming, and verbal short-term memory in three different experiments. Experiment 1 demonstrated that children with dyslexia were significantly poorer in visual-verbal…

We investigated how exposure to pairs of different items (as compared with pairs of identical items) influences 10-month-olds' (n=79) categorization of horses versus dogs in an object-examining task. Infants responded to an exclusive category when familiarized with pairs of different items but not when familiarized with pairs of identical items…

We report two studies examining the relations among three paired-associate learning (PAL) tasks (visual-visual, verbal-verbal, and visual-verbal), phoneme deletion, and single-word and nonword reading ability. Correlations between the PAL tasks and reading were strongest for the visual-verbal task. Path analyses showed that both phoneme deletion…

Four experiments were performed, involving third, fourth, fifth and sixth graders as subjects. The results strongly suggested a close correspondence between direct and vicarious verbal learning principles and mechanisms. (GO)

Children and adults learned associations between line length and color. Subjects were then presented with pairs of colors and asked to choose the color that had been associated with the longer line. For all ages, choice reaction times were related to differences in, and ratios of, line lengths. (BC)

A total of 336 second, fourth, and sixth graders were tested to determine whether the older children automatically attached verbal labels to pictures during paired-associate learning. The author questions whether such labeling necessarily facilitates item learning or associative learning. (JMB)

Extends the investigation of memory assessment to a situation in which memory performance on paired associate tasks varied with the use of different memory strategies. Subjects were 72 first, third, and fifth graders. (Author/MP)

Reports that incentives had an incremental effect upon learning, that incentives were equally effective for both retarded and normal readers, and that the performance of the retarded and normal readers did not differ significantly. (Author/WY)

An experiment is reported in which connective recall, as well as noun recall, was obtained in a pair-associate learning, syntactic facilitation paradigm. Results were interpreted as consistent with the hypothesis that experimenter-supplied verb links facilitate noun pair learning by serving an instructional role, indicating to the subject how a…

Paired associate learning by children was studied as a function of age (4 vs 7 yr), stimulus type (line drawing, color photograph, or object), and mode of elaboration (visual or verbal). Results showed that objects and photographs both surpassed line drawings in terms of learning and that they did not differ significantly from each other. (SBT)

The focus of the study was on the paired-associate performance of retarded subjects of different levels of mental age under various instructional conditions. (WY)

Two studies examined the relationship between phonological sensitivity and 5-year-olds' acquisition of new words that systematically differed in the familiarity of their sound structures. Found that phonological sensitivity was related to pair-associated learning of phonologically unfamiliar, but not familiar, words. Following phonological…