Association value of responses in the paired-associate learning of children and adults

Abstract

Summary Two experiments were conducted to determine the effects of response meaningfulness on paired-associate learning of children and adults. Four lists were constructed using adjectives as stimuli, and CVC trigrams of 20, 50, or 80% association value or singledigit numbers as responses. Although the college students learned the lists more rapidly than the fifth-grade children, the level of performance of both the children and college students was found to vary positively with the association value of the trigram responses. Performance on the list with number responses, however, was better than on any of the trigram lists for the children, but comparable to that on the 50% association-value trigrams for the college students. The results suggest that ratings of mean-ingfulness based upon adult normative groups may be used successfully in selecting materials for experiments on verbal learning with children. The relative difference in performance of the children and adults on the number list was discussed in terms of intralist associative interference.