Paired-associate learning under simultaneous repetition and nonrepetition conditions.

Abstract

The report of a series of experiments designed to control for several variables only inadequately controlled in earlier studies which concluded that associative learning is an all-or-none rather than a gradual incremental process. The earlier study indicated that a group receiving the same list of paired-associate items on each trial did not learn at a different rate than a group for whom all pairs not correctly responded to on any trial were removed from the list and replaced by new pairs on the following trial. The present results are directly contradictory to an all-or-none theory of association formation in paired-associate learning. (18 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)