Verbal Mediation Research Articles

The effect of verbal mediation on the reduction of error to the Poggendorff illusion

Three groups were examined on the Poggendorff Illusion. An experiment group permitted to discuss their responses were found to show significantly less of a perceptual distortion than were two other groups not afforded this opportunity. Results were discussed in relation to perceptual developmental models.

The Absence of Covert Verbal Mediation in Aphasia

The role of verbal mediation in visual short term memory was compared in aphasics and non-aphasic brain-injured controls, using an adaptation of Conrad's procedure. Subjects were given two sets of pictures to match from memory. One set consisted of objects with acoustically similar names, while the other set had no such similarity in sound. Inferior performance on the acoustically similar set was taken as evidence that there was interference caused by covert verbal mediation in this ostensibly visual memory task. Evidence of verbal mediation was found in the non-aphasic controls, but absent in the aphasics.

Differential Effects of Verbal Mediation on Learning and Transfer of a Complex Perceptual Skill

60 male Ss were randomly placed in one of four groups and learned a range-estimation task. One group learned this task by strictly trial-and-error methods using performance feedback. Group Trial-and-error-verbalization learned by trial-and-error methods but were required to verbalize their perception of target size. Group Cue were given a strong prompt on training trials and no feedback. Group Cue-verbalization were given the prompt and required to verbalize their perception of target size. Verbalization caused a significant decrement in performance on transfer of the learned skill ( p < .01). The Trial-and-error group's performance was significantly better than that of other groups ( p < .001). The decrement in performance caused by prompting and verbalization of this perceprual skill was discussed.

Use of Verbal Mediation in Training Auditory Temporal Organization

Training only in the auditory modality with verbal mediation provided substantial gains on the Auditory-Visual Integration Test. 18 children were able to transfer from the auditory to the visual modality once they conceptualized the temporal organization symbolically.

Age-Related Differences in Spatial Position and Serial Position Effects in Short-Term Memory

Abstract Four groups of 40 Ss, aged 4–5 years, 6–7 years, 12–13 years, and young adults, were trained on stimulus displays depicting four familiar, easily labelled objects, and tested for recall with a test stimulus showing one of the four objects in the training display and a dotted blank in the position to be tested. The effect of the spatial location of various components of the stimulus display was examined. Spatial position influenced the recall performance of the two younger groups, but not that of the older children or adults. Age-related differences in the utilization of spatial cues are discussed in terms of other relevant investigations. The effect of the temporal presentation order of the stimulus displays was also analyzed, and age-related differences revealed. Strong primacy effects were evident for the three older groups but not for the kindergarten children. The implications of these results are discussed in relation to current theories of verbal mediation.

Imagery and Verbal Elaboration in Learning and Multiple Associates

From current theory on the differential effectiveness of imagery over verbal elaboration one would expect imagery to be especially effective when the task requires recall of more information for each associative unit. A modified paired-associate task, requiring recall of three responses for each stimulus, was administered to college students under both imagery and verbal mediation instructions. Contrary to expectation, no significant differences were obtained between mediation instructions. The results were interpreted with respect to the nature of instructions and the structural features of the task.

The retrieval of abstract and concrete materials as functions of imagery, mediation, and mnemonic aids

Department of Educational Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802 This study is a report of an investigation of the interaction between imagery ability and processes employed for facilitating recall. The tasks were assumed to involve contrasting processes through the use of imaginal or verbal mediators and concrete or abstract jingles (mnemonic aids) in memorizing two concrete and two abstract lists of 10 words in each list. The dependent variables were latencies in arriving at an association, number of errors and omissions on immediate recall, and number of errors and omissions on delayed recall. The main effects of imagery ability, favoring high imagers, and of kind of lists favoring concrete lists were significant. In delayed recall there was a significant interaction of mnemonic aid and kind of list. Imagery ability interacted with mediators to influence Ss' recall. The results were discussed as supporting Paivio's two-stage association model.

Hemispheric differences in the discrimination of line orientation

Normal, right-handed subjects trained to discriminate between rectangles oriented with their major axis along the vertical, the horizontal and the two intermediate directions, and presented to the right or left side of a fixation point, exhibited faster discriminative reactions (pressing of a key) to stimuli appearing in the right visual field. By contrast, two other groups of normal, right-handed subjects performing a similar reaction-time task with stimuli oriented along other directions (respectively, 30° and 45° from the vertical to the right and the left; 15°, 30°, 45° and 60° from the vertical) were faster in discriminating stimuli presented in the left visual field. These differences in performance for the two halves of the visual field are attributed to hemispheric differences in the discrimination of line orientation. The opposite hemispheric superiorities found with the different discriminations are in turn attributed to the use of verbal mediators in the discrimination preferred by the left hemisphere, and by the use of a non-verbal strategy in the discriminations preferred by the right hemisphere.

The effects of learning instructions and cueing on free recall

Eighty unrelated high-imagery words were presented for free recall learning in groups of four words each. Learning instructions were varied, with one group told to relate the words in each input group by means of images, another group told to use verbal (sentence) mediators, and the control group not given specific learning instructions. During recall, list items were presented as retrieval cues in some conditions. In comparison with the control condition, imagery and verbal mediation instructions produced greater recall, more clustering, and a largez number of instances per group recalled. When the retrieval cues were selected such that one cue came from each of the input groups and when the strength of within-group organization was quite high, Ss recalled more words and a larger number of input groups. It was concluded that instructions and cueing conditions influenced different aspects of the free recall process. Instructions influenced the organization of individual words into units, and cueing affected the retrieval of specific units.

Inter-Manual Transfer of Tactual Learning as a Function of Stimulus Meaningfulness1

32 Ss were initially exposed to wooden shapes of both high and low meaningfulness. Two shapes were presented to the left hand and 2 were presented to the right hand, each for 5 sec. Each shape was presented twice. Vision was blocked and verbal mediation was minimized. Following initial exposure, Ss were tested for recognition of the shapes previously presented. Eight shapes were presented to one hand, each for 5 sec. Two shapes had previously been presented to the opposite hand, 2 had previously been presented to the same hand, and 4 had never before been presented. Half the Ss were exposed to and tested with low followed by high meaningful shapes; half were tested in the reverse sequence. Though there was generally inferior recognition of the low meaningful shapes, both high and low meaningful shapes initially exposed to the opposite hand were recognized as frequently as those initially exposed to the same hand. The results indicated that transmission of tactual information via the corpus callosum was independent of task difficulty.

Coding strategies and cerebral laterality effects

In a short-term recognition memory task, Ss were given relational imagery and rehearsal coding strategies in different sessions, with probes presented to the left or right cerebral hemisphere. Consistent with a model of separate processing systems for verbally and visually coded information, Ss yielded significantly faster response latencies for probes to the left hemisphere than the right when employing the rehearsal strategy, and significantly faster latencies for probes to the right hemisphere than the left when using the imagery code. This suggests that cerebral laterality effects are functionally related to coding strategies, and argues for the inclusion of imagery, or generated visual information, as part of the visual processing system. As such, generated visual information may be viewed as a coding alternative to verbal mediation.

Sex Differences in Cerebral Processing of Visuospatial Tasks

Males and females with left or right cerebral damage were given tests designed to assess language and visuospatial abilities. Speech disturbances were more severe after left- than right-sided lesions, whereas spatial deficit were worse in the right than left-damaged group. Spatial impairment was greatest in males with right-hemisphere lesions, suggesting that the right hemisphere may be more specialized for spatial processes in men than in women. The correlation between verbal scores and block-design scores was significant only for females with left-hemisphere damage, suggesting that women make more use of verbal mediation in traditionally designated nonverbal tasks than do males.

Some correlates of speech coding in the short-term memory of the deaf.

A short-term memory test for visually presented letter sequences was given to 43 deaf students and 46 hearing housewives. Alternately the sequences were phonologically similar or dissimilar. All hearing subjects except one had worse recall with phonologically similar sequences; about half the deaf subjects found them easier. The difference, for the deaf, was examined relative to IQ, pure-tone hearing, speech hearing, and speech quality. In particular, IQ seemed not to be related to degree of verbal mediation, and the discussion considers whether training the deaf in overt speech necessarily leads to the use of covert speech.

Role of verbal mediation in performance of motor tasks by Korsakoff patients.

9 patients with Korsakoff's disease were examined for their ability to learn a finger maze (verbally mediated) and a pursuit-rotor (non-verbally mediated) task. Such patients (matched on IQ and age) were significantly worse than either 9 alcoholic or 9 normal control patients on the finger-maze task but were similar to both groups on the pursuit-rotor task. It was concluded that the verbal encoding deficit of Korsakoff patients can explain their difficulty in learning motor tasks involving verbal mediation.

Children's language coding in short-term memory.

This paper presents a review of various studies on the acquisition, nature and function of language coding in children's learning. Recent experiments are described in which hearing children's phonetic, and deaf children's dactylic, coding activity and mediation effects were expressed in tasks requiring recall from short-term memory. There is some review of verbal production and mediation deficiency hypotheses, and a possible connection between disordered language and inefficient coding is discussed. As opposed to their value in generating meaning, language segments are considered useful in the rehearsal and storage of codable material in memory.

Mnemonic technique effectiveness as a function of word abstractness and mediation instructions

Eight groups of subjects learned five 10-item lists of either concrete or abstract nouns following a training session which provided instruction and practice with one of four mnemonic techniques. Six of the mnemonic groups were instructed to use imagery mediators and two groups were instructed to use verbal-type mediators. Two noninstructed groups served as controls. Recall for three of the four mnemonic groups tested on concrete nouns was greater than for the concrete noun control group. No differences were found for groups tested on abstract nouns. Verbal and imaginal mediation instructions produced no recall differences on either concrete or abstract noun lists.

Effects of Sex and Need to Avoid Success on Verbal Mediation of Experimenter Bias

Biases of +5 (positive bias) or −5 (negative bias) were induced in 4 male and 4 female Es high on n Avoid Success and 4 male and 4 female Es low on n Avoid Success. Instructions tape-recorded by these Es for Rosenthal's photo-rating task were then played for 64 male and 64 female Ss who rated 8 photographs on degree of perceived success or failure by means of a rating scale which ranged from +10 (extreme success) to −10 (extreme failure). Failure of either the chi-square test or the analysis of variance to indicate a significant experimenter bias effect questions Barber's acceptance of previous research which indicated that “the experimenter bias effect is produced by subtle (paralinguistic) cues” but supports his contention that the effect is not the pervasive and easily demonstrable phenomenon Rosenthal has claimed. The only analysis of variance component to reach statistical significance, Ss' sex, appeared due to a response set in which female Ss tended to view individuals pictured in the photo-rating task as more successful, regardless of E's induced bias.

Concept Dominance and Mediator Availability Re-Examined

Summary Heidbreder's order of concept dominance is re-examined by a technique effectively used to test form vs. color dominance in children. Results disconfirm Heidbreder's ordering of form and object concepts and question Osgood's hypothesis on the function of verbal mediators in establishing concept dominance.

Cognitive styles in children and performance on Piagetian conservation tasks.

An investigation of the relationship of field-independence-dependence and verbal mediation-nonmediation to Piagetian conservation behavior in 88 kindergarten, first, and second grade boys. It was hypothesized that the field-independent and the verbally mediating boys will have grasped the principle of conservation to a significantly greater degree than field-dependent and nonmediating boys. The Children's Embedded-figures Test and a reversal-nonreversal shift task were administered in order to categorize the boys on the two main effect dimensions of field independence-dependence and verbal mediation-nonmediation. The Concept Assessment Kit-Conservation was administered to measure the ability of each boy to conserve. The procedure resulted in a three-way irregular analysis of variance design. The main effect of field independence was significant as hypothesized ( p < .05). Grade was also significant ( p < .01), but neither the verbal mediation main effect nor any of the interactions was.

The developmental role of vocalizing in short-term memory

When young children perform a short-term memory (STM) task with familiar objects, they may be instructed to identify items aloud, or they may be observed to do so spontaneously. When recall is compared with that from a “silent” condition, conflicting data have been reported. A STM experiment was carried out using 5-year-old children who were sometimes instructed to vocalize and sometimes instructed not to. For both conditions there was an independent assessment of whether naming (verbal mediation) occurred. It was found that changing the vocalizing instruction changed naming behavior for many children. However, with vocalizing held constant, naming always aided recall. The role of vocalizing itself is considered to be confounded with attention. A developmental model is discussed which relates vocalizing, attention and naming in STM.