Transfer mechanisms in verbal discrimination.

Transfer of implicit associative responses between free-recall learning and verbal discrimination learning tasks.

“…On the subsequent trials performance was inferior to the control, Applica-tion of Rule 1 likewise failed to show a pronounced positive effect on the W^Ri' list which did not differ significantly from the control list. Two other studies (Kanak & Dean, 1969;Raskin, Boice, Rubel, & Clark, 1968), which also required 5s to practice without instructions concerning the list relationships, have reported similar findings. Half of the 5s in the Raskin et al study were informed about the relationship between the lists, and, as predicted by frequency theory, performance on the Wz-Ri' list was superior to the Wa-R2 list.…”

“…Performance on Trials 1-4 was also examined for all conditions, but the results replicated the analysis on total errors. Previous investigations concerned with the Wa-Ri' and Wi'-R2 paradigms (Kanak & Dean, 1969;Kausler & Dean, 1967;Raskin et al, 1968) did not report significant differences, in the absence of instructions, but found the W 2 -Ri' list somewhat easier than the W 2 -R 2 or control list. Performance on the Wi'-R 2 list was essentially inferior to the W 2 -R 2 condition in the early trials, a result attributed to mediated associative interference (Kausler & Dean, 1967).…”

“…The freerecall learning procedure ensures the priming of implicit associative response mechanisms but avoids the development of intrapair incidental associative learning (Sardello & Kausler, 1967) and the resultant interference in transfer associated with prior List 1 VD learning. Others (e.g., Kanak & Dean, 1969;Kausler & Dean, 1967) have shown that incidental associative interference may be involved in the Wi-Ri, W2-R/ and Wi-Ri, Wi'-Ra paradigms as well as other paradigms involving potential associative competition-unlearning relationships. In addition, in further support of the notion of associative interference, Kausler, Fulkerson, and Eschenbrenner (1967) have demonstrated that List 1 incidental associations undergo unlearning in the verbal discrimination analogue (i.e., Wi-Ri, Wi-R 2 ) of the A-B, A-C paired-associate transfer paradigm.…”

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

“…Ekstrand, Wallace, and Underwood (1966) have proposed a frequency theory of verbal discrimination (VD) learning in which performance is assumed to be a function of the differential accrual of frequency units to the right (R) and the wrong (W) items in a VD task. 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.…”

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

“…II). Kanak and Dean (1969) demonstrated that there is a decrement in VD performance if right and wrong items are re-paired. The re-pairing manipulation involves maintaining the right and wrong functions of individual items, but presenting the items in new contexts (pairs).…”