Associative aids: I. Their relation to learning, retention, and other associations.

Reed, H. B.

doi:10.1037/h0071516

Cited by 26 publications

(21 citation statements)

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“…A similar point applies when the subjects supply retrospective reports but are given advance warning of this requirement, either by means ofexplicit instructions (e.g., Reed, 1918a) or by having been asked to report their mediators on earlier trials or learning tasks (e.g., Kiess & Montague, 1965). Using a retroactive-interference (A-B, A-C) paradigm, Adams and Montague (1967) observed in pilot studies that obtaining mediator reports after subjects had learned the first (A-B) list appeared to enhance the number of mediators that they subsequently reported on the second (A-C) list; consequently, in their main experiment, they explicitly encouraged their subjects to generate elaborative mediators on both lists.…”

Section: Mediator Reports As Retrospective Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is, however, an inherently nonelaborative form of processing (Yuille, 1973). Indeed, most researchers since Reed (1918a) have not differentiated between repetition and other "mechanical" or nonelaborative processing in pairedassociate learning. Nevertheless, C. 1. identified repetition or rote rehearsal as a distinct type of associative strategy.…”

Section: Repetitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It follows that they can be manipulated by giving instructions to experimental subjects to set about learning in different ways, and that they can be studied by asking people to describe how they have in fact set about particular learning tasks. These latter accounts are of interest in their own right and also provide a means of checking whether subjects have actually complied with instructions to use different learning strategies.One of the earliest studies to collect such accounts was described by Reed (1918aReed ( , 1918b. He asked 27 subjects to learn four sets of paired associates: two sets consisted of unrelated pairs of English words, the third set consisted of German words paired with their English translations, and the fourth set contained pairs of consonant-vowelconsonant (CYe) nonsense syllables.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One of the earliest studies to collect such accounts was described by Reed (1918aReed ( , 1918b. He asked 27 subjects to learn four sets of paired associates: two sets consisted of unrelated pairs of English words, the third set consisted of German words paired with their English translations, and the fourth set contained pairs of consonant-vowelconsonant (CYe) nonsense syllables.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The availability and effectiveness of reported mediators in associative learning: A historical review and an experimental investigation

Richardson

1998

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

120

137

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This paper provides a historical review and empirical investigation of the availability and the effectiveness of different types of mediator in associative learning, as inferred from subjects' retrospective reports. Mental imagery is a preferred mediational strategy in the learning of pairs of common concrete nouns, and its use is associated with a high level of recall performance. Its availability and its effectiveness are both enhanced if subjects are given interactive imagery instructions. It is argued that retrospective mediator reports provide valid accounts of the cognitive processes that occur at the time of learning and that playa causal role in determining the subsequent level of retention.A fundamental notion in memory research over the last 40 years is the idea that people engage in cognitive processing that determines how well the information in question is remembered. These cognitive activities are generally thought to be under strategic control and available to conscious awareness. It follows that they can be manipulated by giving instructions to experimental subjects to set about learning in different ways, and that they can be studied by asking people to describe how they have in fact set about particular learning tasks. These latter accounts are of interest in their own right and also provide a means of checking whether subjects have actually complied with instructions to use different learning strategies.One of the earliest studies to collect such accounts was described by Reed (1918aReed ( , 1918b. He asked 27 subjects to learn four sets of paired associates: two sets consisted of unrelated pairs of English words, the third set consisted of German words paired with their English translations, and the fourth set contained pairs of consonant-vowelconsonant (CYe) nonsense syllables. (The subjects were apparently not familiar with German.) When the subjects were asked how they had tried to remember the pairs of words, they tended to report associative aids based on shared semantic features or on linking images or phrases; however, in the case of the other sets, they were more likely to report the use oflinking English words that were phonemically similar to the pair as a whole.

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Section: Mediator Reports As Retrospective Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Repetitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The availability and effectiveness of reported mediators in associative learning: A historical review and an experimental investigation

Richardson

1998

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

120

137

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“…This could also be called the problem-solving hypothesis because the subject is faced with the problem of discovering a mediating word that connects the two presented words (Reed, 1918). This must be done in such a way that the two links combined, one between the stimulus and the mediator word and one between the mediator word and the response, are easier to remember than the original association between the stimulus and the response words (Bellezza & Poplawsky, 1974).…”

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confidence: 99%

The functional role of one-word mediators

Bellezza

Poplawsky

Aronovsky

1977

Bull. Psychon. Soc.

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An experiment was performed to demonstrate that natural language mediators are not merely associations to word pairs, but also playa role in learning by reducing the learning of a pairedassociate item to two simpler learning tasks. Although the study times were the same, subjects who gave one word as an association to each word pair performed more poorly on measures of retention than did subjects who gave one word which described or connected the two words of each pair. Also, evidence for some independent visual-image mediation was found.When subjects are given a paired-associate learning task in which the items have non~anguage components such as CVCs, the learning of each item is often accompanied by a natural language mediator (Bugelski, 1962; Montague, Adams, & Kiess, 1966; Underwood & Schulz, 1960). The natural language mediator is usually a word or phrase that sounds like or, when written, looks like the original item but is part of the subject's natural language. It has been found that the presence of a natural language mediator for an item indicates that the subject is more likely to have learned and is more likely to retain that item compared to an item for which no natural language mediator has been reported (for a review see Montague, 1972). Although interesting phenomena in their own right, natural language mediators may also provide an index by which the depth of processing (Craik & Lockhart, 1972) or degree of elaboration (Craik & Tulving, 1975) can be measured.Bellezza and Poplawsky (I974) found that natural language mediators facilitated learning even when the pairs being learned were randomly paired nouns which were already part of the subjects' natural language. For some of the presented pairs the subjects were asked to give one word that described, connected, or associated the two words in the pair. They found that pairs for which a one-word mediator was requested were recalled significantly better than control pairs which the subjects were told to silently study. Also, as found in other studies such as Montague et al. (I966) 460word was almost never recalled unless the mediator word was also recalled.There is agreement resulting from experimentation that if the subject can give a natural language mediator during study and also recall the natural language mediator during the test of the item, then there is a high probability that the response will also be given. However, there is disagreement as to whether or not the natural language mediator plays any functional role in learning. The mediator could be merely an epiphenomenon which accompanies learning but reflects no process involved in the actual learning of the pair (Adams & Mcintyre, 1967;Underwood, 1972). This criticism can be made of almost any study utilizing natural language mediation. BeIlezza and Pop\awsky (I974) discussed the possibility that the one-word mediator given for a word pair in their experiment may not have been a mediating link between the two presented words, but merely a strong associate to one or both of the word...

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Memory as Behavior: The Importance of Acquisition and Remembering Strategies

Delaney

Austin

1998

Analysis Verbal Behav

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The study of memory has traditionally been the province of cognitive psychology, which has postulated different memory systems that store memory traces to explain remembering. Behavioral psychologists have been unsuccessful at empirically identifying the behavior that occurs during remembering because so much of it occurs rapidly and covertly. In addition, behavior analysts have generally been disinterested in studying transient phenomena such as memory. As a result, the cognitive interpretation has been the only one that has made and tested useful predictions. Recent experimental evidence acquired while having participants "think aloud" suggests that a behavioral approach to memory may provide a superior account of memory performance and allow applied scientists to observe and modify memory-related behavior with well-known applied behavior-analytic techniques. We review evidence supporting and extending the interpretation of memory provided by Palmer (1991), who described memory in terms of precurrent behavior that occurs at the time of acquisition in preparation for problem solving that occurs at the time of remembering.

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Associative aids: I. Their relation to learning, retention, and other associations.

Cited by 26 publications

References 0 publications

The availability and effectiveness of reported mediators in associative learning: A historical review and an experimental investigation

The availability and effectiveness of reported mediators in associative learning: A historical review and an experimental investigation

The functional role of one-word mediators

Memory as Behavior: The Importance of Acquisition and Remembering Strategies

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