Simultaneous paired associate and verbal discrimination learning as a simulation of the double-function list

Abstract

In the critical condition, the subject was required to learn associations between words in the pairs and to learn to identify simultaneously the word in each pair that had been underlined on study trials. Over trials, both types of responding were required for each pair. Control conditions were used to assess the influence of these procedures. Paired associate learning was only modestly impaired, but the verbal discrimination learning (identifying the underlined word) appeared comparable to that for a double-function verbal discrimination list. The correlational evidence indicated that insofar as the present procedures simulated a double-function list, the association between the words in a pair is not involved in a causal way for the small amount of learning that occurs across trials in a double-function list.