Verbal discrimination learning as a function of associative strength between the word-pair members

Abstract

Derivations from associative generalization experiments and the frequency theory of verbal discrimination learning were tested in four experiments. Exps. I and IV used the usual simultaneous verbal discrimination procedure, Exp. II used a successive discrimination procedure, and Exp. III used a differential discrimination procedure. Exps. I-III were conducted with college S s and Exp. IV was conducted with fourth-grade children. In all four experiments discriminations were required between pairs of words of high, intermediate or zero free-association strength, and in all cases the difficulty of the discrimination was positively related to association strength although the overall difficulty of learning was related to the type of discrimination task employed. The results were interpreted as supporting the frequency theory of verbal discrimination learning.