The Strength of Implicit Associative Responses in Verbal-Discrimination Learning

Abstract

The strength of implicit associative responses was manipulated in the right and wrong terms of verbal-discrimination lists. The frequency-theory predictions for these manipulations were not supported, despite the presence of false recognitions in a subsequent recognition test. In view of these and earlier equivocal results, it is suggested that implicit associative responses contribute to situational experience less than other frequency units. The procedure for verbal-discrimination learning typically involves the presentation of a set of paired items, with the subject's task being to learn to recognize which member of each pair has been arbitrarily specified as correct by the experimenter. A recent theory (Ekstrand, Wallace, and Underwood, 1966) has assumed that the underlying mechanism is a judgment of the difference in the subjective frequency of laboratory experience for each of the members in a given pair. Frequency theory assumes that the rehearsal of the right member in each pair during feedback periods eventually provides the subject with a consistent cue to distinguish right terms from wrong terms across pairs, so that he need only choose the 'most familiar' word in each pair. The present research concerns a special type of frequency unit, the implicit associative response (Bousfield, Whitmarsh, and Danick, 1958). When an item with an associate is presented, it may be the case that the associate occurs implicitly as well (e.g., 'queen' occurs when 'king' is presented). Frequency theory assumes that an implicit associative response reflects a change in the subjective frequency of experience, as do rehearsal and pronouncing responses, although it remains to be proven that all types of events contribute equally to subjective frequency. For example, if the associates served as right terms in different pairs, the rehearsal of 'king' as a right term might involve the covert experience of 'queen' as an implicit associative response, so that when the pair containing 'queen' appears, the subject will already have a frequency cue to