The Relative Importance of Associative Strategy and Motivation to Learn in Paired-Associate Learning

Abstract

Summary The study was designed to evaluate the relative contributions of mnemonic strategy and motivation to learn as facilitating influences in paired-associate learning. Sixty male and female undergraduates were asked to recall a list of 60 nouns under one of three motivation-to-learn conditions: (a) incidental learning, (b) intentional learning, and (c) intentional learning with incentive to learn. Within each motivation-to-learn condition, half of the Ss were provided an imaginal mnemonic strategy and half were given no mnemonic strategy. Mnemonic instructions had a markedly facilitative effect on performance, but there was no main effect for motivation to learn. However, there was a significant Mnemonic Instructions x Motivation to Learn interaction, which indicated that the motivation manipulations influenced recall only in the absence of mnemonic instructions. Motivational and strategic effects on learning were discussed in terms of a levels-of-processing framework.