Latency in a modified paired-associate learning experiment

Millward, Richard B.

doi:10.1016/s0022-5371(64)80071-2

Cited by 46 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 5 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…As expected from previous research (e.g., Millward, 1964;Postman & Kaplan, 1947), as learning progressed, search times decreased across trials. On the very first trial, most subjects pressed the key immediately to obtain the response term, but thereafter, they searched for the correct response before pressing the key.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 86%

Analysis of search times in paired associates learning

Murray

1980

Bull. Psychon. Soc.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

It was tentatively suggested that a long unsuccessful search on Trial n of a paired associate task might be associated with a higher probability of recall on Trial n + 1 than would a short search. The reasons for thinking this included the evidence that several test trials can be associated with good recall and that items found with difficulty in a retrieval task were later well recalled in a free recall task. The prediction was not confirmed, however, in either of two studies. Data are presented on the reduction of search time as learning progresses and on the distribution of subjective feeling-of-knowing states during learning. Subjects appeared either to "know" or "not know" the answer and rarely gave responses indicative of intermediate states of knowing.In paired associates learning, there are two reasons for thinking that a long search, which does not end in success, nevertheless might result in better acquisition of the response term when the subject is told it. First, Gardiner, Craik, and Bleasdale (1973) have shown that, in a free recall task, a word that is difficult to find might be better recalled, later, from long-term memory. In one of their studies, subjects were given 50 definitions of words plus the initial letters of these words and had to find the appropriate words within 60 sec. After all 50 words had been tested, the subjects were given an unexpected recall test of the words. It was found that words that had been discovered only with difficulty had a higher probability of being recalled in the fmal free recall. In particular, words that had been associated with a tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) experience, as rated subjectively by participants in the experiment, were recalled. One might try to extrapolate from this free recall study to paired associates learning: If a word is preceded by a long and unsuccessful search, might it not then be better retained than a word not preceded by a long search? Second, Izawa (1967) has shown that even though two test trials are associated with the same accuracy of performance, a study trial following two such test trials can be associated with a higher level of acquisition than can a study trial follOWing only one such test trial. In later work (Izawa, 1970), the effect was successfully extended to cover the case of as many as 19 test trials intervening between study trials. Izawa's explanation for Preparation of this article was supported by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Grant AO-126 to the first author. We should like to express our gratitude to Anne Chenier and Fatima Kheraj for research assistance. We are also grateful to Keith Norton for helpful advice and to David Dockendorff for assistance with equipment and programming. Experiment 1 was carried out while the author held Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Leave Fellowship 451-780198. the advantage of test trials for future performance was that during a test trial, even though no new items are found, a larger repertoire of possible responses is sampled and thus ma...

show abstract

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 86%

Analysis of search times in paired associates learning

Murray

1980

Bull. Psychon. Soc.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…(Cf. Millward, 1964) may in part be due to interference effects from erroneous responding (Peterson & Brewer, 1963). …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, decreasing latencies after errors cease are difficult to incorporate into an all-ornone model of learning. Millward (1964) found decreasing latencies in a two-alternative button-pressing task for several trials after the last error . However, the guessing probability was high with only two responses, and an allor-none interpretation could assume that the S was right by guessing for some of the pairs in the early trials after the last error.…”

mentioning

confidence: 90%

Paired-associate latencies after the last error

Peterson

1965

Psychon Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The all-or-none latency model proposed by Millward (1964b) and tested and rejected by Peterson (1965) is a special case of the all-ornone latency model reported in this paper. The two models make identical predictions about the probability of a correct response if the parameter c equals 1.00 and p equals g. The two models make identical predictions about response latency if LN is equal to L T , LN is equal to L F , and LN is greater than Lp'…”

Section: Bls Usslonmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…The mean response latency also takes only one increment if L N , L T , and LF are all equal. On the basis of latency data published in Millward's (1964b) Fig. 4, there is reason to assume that the three mean latencies are equal for some experimental situations.…”

Section: University Of Texasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prediction of paired-associate latencies after the last error by an all-or-none learning model

Theios

1965

Psychon Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

AbstraetAn all-or-none learning model is presented which makes predictions for response latencies in pairedassociate learning. The predicted latencies decrease on trials following the last error of a criterion run and accurately describe the latency data of an experiment by Peterson (1965). Problem Peterson (1965) has stated that "For an incremental view of learning, the latency of response would be expected to decrease after the S stops making errors. However, decreasing latencies after errors cease are difficult to incorporate into an all-or-none model of learning." Peterson (1965) gave 15 undergraduates 20 trials to learn 10 paired-associates. The stimuli were 10 consonant bigrams, and the responses were the digits 1 to 8. He found that the group mean latency decreased on the 10 trials following an SIS last error. He interpreted the data as indicating that "Speed of occurence (of the correct response) appears to be a measure of strength of an association which changes gradually over trials. tt The question of crucial importance to learning theory is not whether learning is strictly' 'all-or-none." Rather it is whether learning is grossly discrete or approximately continuous. A grossly discrete process may have a number of individual mechanisms, each strictly allor-none. When cast in these terms, the Peterson (1965) data are not at all at variance with a discrete, all-ornone position on learning.As a case in point, suppose that a complete stimulusresponse association is formed strictly on one triaL Behavioristically, an association is defined as the occurrence of a particular response to a presented stimulus. Assume further that the association is first stored in an imperfect, temporary memory and later transferred to a perfect, relatively permanent memory. Then response latency would be a direct function of retrieval time or memory search time, and it would not be unreasonable to expect that retrieval of the association from temporary memory would take longer than retrieval from permanent memory. These notions lead to an all-or-none learning model which may be defined by the following explicit assumptions;1. The response given on a trial to a particular stimulus item depends only on the state of conditioning of the individual stimulus-response association.

show abstract

Latency in a modified paired-associate learning experiment

Cited by 46 publications

References 5 publications

Analysis of search times in paired associates learning

Analysis of search times in paired associates learning

Paired-associate latencies after the last error

Prediction of paired-associate latencies after the last error by an all-or-none learning model

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About