Incidental Learning in a Paired-Associate Task

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate differences in recall and number of trials to criterion between incidental learning groups and control groups when memorizing CVC trigrams of high or low intralist similarity. The sample consisted of 64 undergraduate students each of whom were randomly assigned to one of four groups. Group I subjects were exposed, in an incidental learning situation, to a paired-associate list with high response similarity. After incidental exposure they were required to learn the same material to criterion. Group II subjects were exposed, in an incidental learning situation, to a paired-associate list with low response similarity. After incidental exposure they were required to learn the same material to criterion. Groups III and IV served as control groups with Group III asked to learn the high similarity list and Group IV asked to learn the low similarity list. Students exposed in an incidental learning situation to the paired-associate list recalled significantly more of the response trigrams than subjects receiving no such pre-exposure. The two incidental learning groups took significantly fewer trials to learn the paired-associate lists to criterion than did the two control groups. Intralist similarity of trigrams was not found to significantly influence the recall scores or the number of trials necessary to learn the paired-associate lists to criterion.