The effect of intermittent noise upon attention span was investigated in two experiments. In Exp. 1, 4 levels of noise intensity were used (no noise, 75 db, 85 db, and 100 db). The task was a serial anticipation task in which the relevant stimuli were 4-letter words located in the center of a projected slide. 3-letter words were peripherally located; the peripheral words were not mentioned to Ss. Ss in the 85-db and the 100-db conditions learned fewer of the peripheral words as indicated by a free-recall test than Ss in the no-noise and the 75-db conditions, indicating a narrowing of attention due to the higher noise levels. In Exp. 2, Ss operating under noise (85 db) performed significantly better on the Stroop Color-Word Test than did Ss operating under no noise, again indicating a focusing of attention due to noise-induced arousal. The results are consistent with the proposal of several authors that increasing emotional arousal causes a narrowing of attention.

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The problem of demonstrating that natural language mediators play a role in learning and are not epiphenomena resulting from learning is an important problem in cognitive learning theories. Using a cued-recall and a free-recall learning task, Ss were requested to add a one-word mediator to some of the pairs of concrete nouns presented. The mediated pairs were learned better than the control pairs in both tasks. Both words were recalled only when the mediator was also recalled. Also, one-word mediators were the most effective recall cues and were the best recalled words in free recall. A two-stage learning model adequately described the data. However, a counterargument can be made which considers the mediator to be a high associate of one of the words presented and actually has no direct link to the other presented word. A possible experimental resolution of the problem is discussed.The possibility that elaborative strategies are routinely used by the human learner is receiving increasing attention in verbal learning theories. These elaborative strategies can involve conceptual mediation (Mandler, 1963), verbal elaboration (Montague, 1972, or visual imagery (Paivio, 1971). How necessary an elaborative strategy is to verbal learning is still in question, but the concept does play some role in many different theories (Melton & Martin, 1972). One technique used in the study of verbal elaboration in learning is natural language mediation (Montague, Adams, & Kiess, 1966; Prytulak, 1971), in which Ss are presented with to-beremembered material such asCVCsor CVCword pairs and are requested to transform the material into meaningful words, phrases, or sentences in order to better acquire and retain it. These transformations are the natural language mediators. It has been shown that correct recall of the presented material is strongly related to the recall of the natural language mediators used to code it (Montague et al, 1966).One problem in the study of natural language mediators is to demonstrate that they play a role in learning and are not merely epiphenomena accompanying learning (Adams & Mclntyre, 1967;Underwood, 1972). In Experiment I Ss were presented with 24 pairs of nouns; half of these pairs were simply read aloud by the Ss and studied, whereas, upon presentation of the other half of the pairs, the Ss were asked to add a third word which described, connected, or associated the two words presented. For recall of the control pairs, S was cued with either the first word of the pair (A) or the second word (B) and had to respond with the other word of the pair. For recall of the mediated pairs, which included the one-word mediator, the Ss were cued with A, B, or the mediator word (M) and had to respond with the other two words. If the act of generating a mediator facilitates learning, then *This research was supported in part by Grant OURe 437 to the first author by the Ohio University Research Committee.tRequests for reprints should be sent to Francis S. Bellezza, Department of Psychology. Ohio University. Athens....

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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