Verbal discrimination learning: A review of the acquisition, transfer, and retention literature through 1972.

Eckert, Ed; Kanak, N. Jack

doi:10.1037/h0036944

Cited by 30 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 109 publications

(212 reference statements)

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“…The frequency theory prediction that associates should be more difficult to discriminate than unrelated words was not supported by either experiment, even when a very short lSI of 600 msec was employed. In this respect, the present data agree with much VDL research (see Eckert & Kanak, 1974). On the other hand, while the taxonomic relatedness effects at the short lSI agree with feature analysis expectations, the lack of homonymic interference conflicts with both feature analysis predictions and VDL data (see Eckert & Kanak, 1974).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

“…Finally, in view ofVDL data (Eckert & Kanak, 1974;McCarthy, 1973) suggesting that relatedness effects may depend upon the temporal parameters of the PERRY situation, the interstimulus interval (lSI) between CS and US onset was also manipulated. Experiment I examined the five types of relatedness at ISis of 1000 and 1400 msec, while Experiment II tested ISis of 1000 and 600 msec.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Verbal discrimination learning theory and differential eyelid conditioning to related words at three interstimulus intervals

Perry

1976

Bull. Psychon. Soc.

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Two experiments examined the relevance of frequency theory and feature analysis models of verbal discrimination learning (VDL) for differential eyelid conditioning to related words. The single reinforced and nonreinforced stimuli were: (a) high associates, (b) homonyms, (c) members of the same taxonomic class, (d) unrelated nouns, or (e) unrelated noun and adjective or verb items. Experiment I examined these five types of relatedness at 1000-msec and 14oo-msec interstimulus intervals (lSI), while Experiment II tested ISIs of 1000 msec and 600 msec. Conditioned discrimination was generally poorer at the 6oo-msec lSI, but neither VDL model's relatedness interference predictions were fully confirmed. Contrary to frequency theory, associates were no more difficult to discriminate than unrelated words. The feature analysis model was partially supported, in that taxonomic but not homonymic relatedness produced some interference at the 606-msec lSI. Possible process differences between verbal recognition learning and differential conditioning which may account for these results were discussed.The present research examined the relevance of recognition learning theory for human classical conditioning. Specifically, differential conditioning to verbal conditioned stimuli (CSs) was viewed as an analog to verbal discrimination learning (VDL), and the predictions of two alternative VDL theories were contrasted within the context of differential eyelid conditioning to related verbal discriminanda. The positive stimulus word (CS+), reinforced by occurrence of the unconditioned stimulus (US), and the negative or nonreinforced word (CS-) were either high normative associates, members of the same taxonomic category, homonyms, unrelated nouns, or unrelated noun-non noun (adjective or verb) combinations.According to frequency theory (Ekstrand, Wallace, & Underwood, 1966), associative relatedness between correct (R) and incorrect (W) items interferes with VDL because the occurrence of the R and W items as implicit associative responses (lARs) retards the development of discriminable subjective R-W frequency differences. The analogous prediction in the present situation is that differential conditioning should be detrimentally affected by associative relatedness, but not by homonymic or taxonomic relatedness, assuming

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Verbal discrimination learning theory and differential eyelid conditioning to related words at three interstimulus intervals

Perry

1976

Bull. Psychon. Soc.

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“…Our purpose in the first study was to test the Schwartz (1975) hypothesis by using a verbal discrimination learning (VDL) task (see Eckert & Kanak, 1974, for a review of the verbal discrimination literature). In a VDL task, words are presented in pairs in which one word in each pair is randomly designated as the correct word.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Individual Differences in Arousal and Accessibility to Information in Memory

Libkuman

Griffith²,

Wines³

et al. 1998

The Journal of General Psychology

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The authors conducted 9 experiments to test the hypothesis (S. Schwartz, 1975) that arousal influences the accessibility of information stored in memory. They investigated the relationship between arousal levels (as indexed by personality types) and the type of stimuli or cues presented during study or test. They predicted that low-arousal individuals (stable extraverted individuals in Experiments 1-3 and 5-9 and high-impulsive individuals in Experiment 4) would be influenced by semantic stimuli, whereas high-arousal individuals (neurotic introverted individuals in Experiments 1-3 and 5-9 and low-impulsive individuals in Experiment 4) would be influenced by physical (i.e., graphic, phonetic, or both) stimuli. They tested the arousal-accessibility hypothesis by using a variety of tasks including verbal discrimination, false recognition, cued recall, and paired associates. With the exception of the finding that stable extraverted participants performed better than neurotic introverted participants on an incidental associative-matching task (Experiment 3), the results from the verbal discrimination studies (1-5) did not support the hypothesis. In Experiment 6, the authors tested the hypothesis by using a false-recognition task. False alarms varied as a function of phonetic and semantic stimuli, but personality types were not differentially sensitive to the manipulation. The same was true for the cued-recall studies (Experiments 7 and 8); personality types were not differentially sensitive to the semantic and phonetic stimuli. Experiment 9 (paired-associate learning) was a replication of Schwartz's study. The authors found some support for the Schwartz hypothesis: Extraverted participants were adversely affected by semantic similarity. Overall, the findings did not provide much support for the arousal-accessibility hypothesis.

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“…In contrast, a contemporary researcher might note the similarities with a source monitoring task and assume that recollection (the retrieval of a verbal label) underlies correct responses. However, work that is now largely forgotten shows that neither option is likely (Eckert & Kanak, 1974;Eckstrand, Wallace, & Underwood, 1966). Instead, it appears that participants have a strong tendency to rely on the relative frequency with which the members of the pair have been read, rehearsed, and/or pronounced (Eckstrand et al, 1966).…”

Section: Overview Of Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Buffered forgetting: When targets and distractors are both forgotten

2007

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In three experiments, we investigated prior findings that, following some memory tasks, essentially flat d or forced-choice retention curves are produced. These curves have been interpreted as indicating that forgetting is not present over the intervals examined; however, we propose in this article that forgetting is actually present whenever hit rates and false alarm rates are both declining, despite the result being a flat retention curve. We demonstrate that such curves can be produced using a pair recognition procedure, a plurality discrimination task, and a verbal discrimination task. For all of these tasks, we provide either new evidence or refer to evidence already in the literature that tends to contradict alternative explanations. Then we show how the failure to consider both signal strength and noise has led to distortions in theoretical thinking about forgetting.

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Verbal discrimination learning: A review of the acquisition, transfer, and retention literature through 1972.

Cited by 30 publications

References 109 publications

Verbal discrimination learning theory and differential eyelid conditioning to related words at three interstimulus intervals

Verbal discrimination learning theory and differential eyelid conditioning to related words at three interstimulus intervals

Individual Differences in Arousal and Accessibility to Information in Memory

Buffered forgetting: When targets and distractors are both forgotten

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