SYNTACTICAL MEDIATION OF SERIAL AND PAIRED-ASSOCIATE LEARNING AS A FUNCTION OF AGE

Abstract

Groups of 20 Ss at each of seven age levels from 5 to 17 years of age, matched on IQ and socioeconomic background, were compared on serial and paired-associate (PA) learning. Half the Ss learned under instructions to use syntactical verbal mediators, and half had no mediation instructions. The results showed that PA and serial learning interact diferently with age and with mediation instructions. Speed of serial learning was little affected by mediation and beyond the age of eight was scarcely correlated with age under either condition of instructions. PA learning, on the other hand, was markedly facilitated by mediation instructions, particularly in the age range from 7 to 13, and PA learning ability was strikingly correlated with age when Ss were given no mediation instructions.