Unlearning as a function of the relationship between successive response classes.

Abstract

This study tests the assumption that in the A-B, A-C transfer paradigm the unreinforced evocation of covert or overt first-list responses during the acquisition of the second list results in the unlearning of the first-list associations. In an RI design using the A-B, A-C paradigm the work groups received interpolated trials on a second list in which the type of responses either remained the same as in List 1 or was different. Free recall of List 1 associations revealed greater RI and more interlist intrusions for the conditions using the same type of responses. It appears that the degree of unlearning depends upon the frequency with which first-list responses are elicited during second-list learning. These results are consistent with the position that unlearning is a process sharing some of the functional characteristics of experimental extinction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)