Paired-associate learning as a function of the strength of links in the associative chain

Abstract

Summary This study was designed to replicate and extend the findings and model reported by Jarret and Scheibe to account for the learning of paired-associates in which the associative strength between the stimulus and response or the associative strength of some mediating word between the stimulus and response is known. Three groups of fifth-grade children learned different lists of paired-associates. List A–B was composed of stimuli and responses with high or low associative strength, List A–C was composed of the same stimuli and responses which were not associated with them directly but only through mediated associations of either high or low strength, while List A–X was composed of the same stimuli with responses which were not associated with the stimuli. Associative strength in all cases was based upon word-association norms for fifth grade children. The results strongly supported the model proposed by Jarrett and Scheibe. Mean number of errors varied inversely with the associative strength of the pairs regardless of whether the strength was taken directly from the normative data or was computed by multiplicatively combining the associative strengths of the mediating links forming the chain from the stimulus to the response. Suggestions were made for extensions of the model used and variables which might affect such extensions.