Effects of mediated associations in paired-associate learning of children

Abstract

This investigation was conducted to demonstrate that mediated associations can facilitate or impair the performance of children on a verbal paired-associate task. Natural language associates derived from freeassociation norms in the mediational chain were used in the investigation. Two chaining paradigms were tested: A-B, B-C, A-C and A-B, C-A, C-B. A-B learning was assumed from the normative data for sixth-grade children. Sixty Ss learned by the method of anticipation two lists of S-R pairs constructed such that each S served as his own control for the three experimental conditions: facilitation, interference, and control. The results for both paradigms revealed the facilitation condition to be significantly superior to the interference condition, with the control condition falling between. These results provide support for a theory of mediated association and demonstrate that existing language habits can influence the acquisition of new verbal habits by implementing the mediating process.