Response availability and percentage of occurrence of response members in children's paired-associate learning

Abstract

The present study investigated differential response learning as a function of percentage of occurrence of response members. Eighty children learned a list consisting of six paired adjectives. In one experimental condition Ss learned by the conventional anticipation method. The second experimental condition also employed the anticipation method but, in addition, the responses of the to-be-learned list were presented in a vertical array next to each stimulus during the anticipation interval. The results indicated that the difference between 100% and 33 1 3 % occurrence of response members as measured by correct responses and overt extra-list errors was significantly decreased by making responses available. One interpretation of the data is that availability of responses tends to delimit Ss' responses to those contained in the paired-associate list, and thereby reduces the superiority of 100% to 33 1 3 % occurrence of response members.