Paired-associate learning in children: length of list, initial associative strength, presentation time, and grade level.

Abstract

Acquisition of paired associates was studied as a function of initial associative strength (IAS), presentation time (PT), length of list and grade level. On trials to criterion, significant effects were obtained for IAS and PT and list length. There were no grade differences. Difficulty of the pairs in the list as measured by average number of errors per unit pair showed significant effects for PT and IAS. List length did not change the difficulty of learning an individual pair. Length of time to learn lists as measured by total learning time gave no evidence of time constancy but suggests that within the limits of this experiment, total learning time is a direct function of PT.