Isolation and Organizational Effects in Serial Learning

Abstract

When a syllable in the middle of a serial list is 'isolated,' i.e. made to contrast with the other syllables, it now seems clear that the isolated syllable is learned sooner than it otherwise would have been, but that there is no spread of effect to adjacent items; nor is there a facilitation in learning the list as a whole. Waugh has cited convincing evidence that in serial learning an individual starts at the beginning of a list and learns sequentially his average number of items per trial, until the entire list is learned.1 Isolation, however, has been found to move up the order in which an item is ordinarily learned in a sequence. Thus, as Jensen points out, the Von Restorff-effect (isolation) could be due to an earlier ordering, and hence learning of the isolated item.2 The earlier ordering might be explained as a function of the increased discriminability engendered by isolation, resulting in selective attention to the contrasting item.