Re-pairing "rights" and "wrongs" in verbal discrimination learning.

Abstract

A conceptual scheme for reinterpreting the "re-pairing decrement" in verbaldiscrimination (VD) learning was outlined. It was hypothesized that the decrement could be accounted for within a frequency theory by liberalizing the "counting" postulate. The decrement was viewed as a special case of increased VD difficulty resulting from a breakdown in the rule that all correct alternatives are uniformly higher in frequency value than their respective incorrect partners. An experimental manipulation designed to increase the likelihood of a breakdown in this rule was successful in increasing the re-pairing decrement.

The re-pairing decrement in verbal discrimination transfer: Further evidence favoring associative mechanisms.

“…Finally, there is the possibility that the relatively small re-pairing decrement observed by Wallace and Nappe (1971) could be interpreted as consistent with a multiplecomponent analysis (Kanak & Dean, 1969) of interacting frequency cues and associative mechanisms, which suggests that incidental associations should interfere most in Rule 2 transfer situations and least in Rule 1 paradigms. Wallace and Nappe gave six study trials, allowing at least six opportunities for the development of incidentally learned associations via simple contiguity and repetition, before re-pairing occurred on the single "transfer" test trial.…”

“…Others (e.g., Kanak & Dean, 1969;Kausler & Dean, 1967) have obtained negative transfer when 5s were not so informed. Wallace and Nappe (1971) also informed their 5s of the repairing manipulation, while Kanak and Dean and the authors of the present study did not. The variable of instructions may therefore be a fruitful area of investigation as a potentially significant determinant of the relative contributions of frequency and associative mechanisms in VD transfer in view of the above cited literature and the differential results for slow vs. fast (who respond as if they were "self-instructed" after familiarization training) learners in the present study.…”

“…Thus, an associative competition mechanism in the VD task is assumed to have its inhibitory effect at a covert level through the creation of a longer response latency, a lower response confidence level, and a consequent increase in the probability of selection of the incorrect response by guessing. Wallace and Nappe (1971) and Wallace (1972) have suggested that the re-pairing decrement observed by Kanak and Dean (1969) can be accounted for within frequency theory by a liberalization of the "counting" postulate of the theory. The basic postulate of the original frequency theory (Ekstrand et al, 1966) is that each trial adds frequency units to the R and W items at a ratio of 2:1, respectively.…”

“…These authors suggested that the Kanak and Dean procedure of re-pairing items in the transfer task may have allowed some more frequent W items to become paired with less frequent R items and vice versa, thus producing a difficult task in which Rule 1 is applicable to some pairs, but Rule 2 ("select the least frequent item") is applicable to others. Wallace and Nappe (1971) attempted to provide empirical support for this hypothesis by presenting pairs of R and W items two, four, or six times on a single study trial, followed by a single test trial employing either the same or different pairings. For some 5s the "different" pairings involved R and W items with the same study trial frequency, while for others the frequencies were crossed such that frequency values favored either the W or R item on the test trial.…”

Re-pairing, number of alternatives, and meaningfulness in verbal discrimination learning.

“…Kanak and Dean (1969) found a decrement in List 2 performance of a VD transfer task if List 2 is constructed from List 1 by re-pairing the R and W items; this decrement was not predicted by frequency theory since the re-pairing operation does not alter the frequency mechanisms which are assumed to be the basis for discrimination. In order to account for the decrement observed in the transfer task, Wallace and Nappe (1971) liberalized the counting postulate of frequency theory by appealing to notions of variability and yoking. The present investigation was designed to determine if it is necessary to modify the counting postulate for singlelist VD studies and to determine the role of incidentally learned intrapair associations by comparing the performance of a normal VD group with the performance of a variable group in which the R and W items were randomly re-paired on each trial.…”