Effects of the number of study trials on single-item recognition following verbal discrimination learning

Abstract

Sixty subjects were exposed to one of four 2O-item verbal discrimination lists for one, two, or four study trials. A recognition task followed consisting of the previous correct and incorrect items and a set of distractor words. The results of the analysis of the recognition task indicated superior discriminability of correct items as compared to incorrect items. The results also suggested that one criterion had been adopted which appeared to be lenient for correct items and stringent for incorrect items. The results were interpreted in terms of frequency theory.Underwood, Jesse, and Ekstrand (1964) studied retention of items across lists by means of a verbal discrimination transfer task. Two transfer situations were investigated: lists containing the same correct items and lists using the same incorrect items. Performance was essentially perfect when the first-list correct items were retained, whereas performance was good but showed no improvement with retention of first-list incorrect items which indicated recognition of first-list items. Underwood et al. explained these results by assuming that secondlist discrimination performance is based on the relative frequency of the two items. The older unit has more frequency than the new unit and is therefore more recognizable.Based on these results, Ekstrand, Wallace, and Underwood (1966) proposed the frequency theory of verbal discrimination learning, which states that during learning responses are made to the correct and incorrect members of a verbal discrimination list that adds frequency units to these items. According to the theory, the correct item obtains more frequency units than the corresponding incorrect item. Assuming that recognition performance is based on frequency differences, this should make the correct item more recognizable. This assumption was tested by Erlebacher, Hill, and Wallace (1967) by giving subjects a recognition test following learning to a criterion of one perfect trial. The results indicated a better recognition of correct than incorrect items, which corresponds to the prediction based on the frequency theory. Radtke and Foxman (1969) extended this finding by comparing recognition performance following twoalternative and four-alternative verbal discriminationThe author would like to express his thanks to Robert E. Gehring and Michael P. TogJia for their aid in the preparation of the data analysis. This research was funded by an organized research grant from Tarleton State University. Robert K. Young sponsors this paper and takes full editorial responsibility for its contents.learning. Frequency theory predicts that correct items would be more easily recognized following fouralternative learning than in the two-alternative situation. Recognition performance of incorrect items should show the opposite result. Radtke and Foxman found that recognition of correct items was essentially perfect in both conditions, while recognition of incorrect items was superior in the two-alternative situation. The authors interpreted these results as sup...