Learning theory and the new "mental chemistry."

Wk, Estes

doi:10.1037/h0041624

Cited by 311 publications

(190 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…This pattern of results is relevant to the theoretical controversies in the application of mathematical models to paired associate data (Estes, 1960;Postman, 1963). The fact that the proportion of correct-incorrect is greater than the proportion incorrect-correct, and that both of these proportions are greater than zero, rule out the one-element model, which predicts that both proportions are zero, and linear models, which predict that the two proportions would be equal.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of test trials in paired-associate learning

Belenky

1968

Psychon Sci

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This study investigated the effect of varying the events occurring between two reinforced trials on the course of learning. It was found that the effectiveness of a second reinforced trial was greater; (a) for the longer of two inter-reinforcement intervals prior to the second reinforced trial; (b) if S is not specifically tested for retention of the reinforced item; (c) for filler trials that made no specific demands on S.A general issue raised by the studies concerning the "all or none versus incremental" nature of paired associate verbal learning concerns the role of test trials. Izawa (1966a) showed that although no learning of correct responses occurs on consecutive test trials, test trials do increase the effectiveness of a following reinforced trial. However, whether this potentiation was a unique result of the testing items per se, or whether it stemmed from the increased temporal spacing of reinforced trials which accompanied the interspersed test trials could not be determined from Izawa's experimental design.The purpose of the present experiment was to study the effects of different intervals between reinforced trials as a function of the type of event filling these intervals. The experimental design included two intervals between reinforced trials, and three types of events to fill these intervals. MethodSubjects and procedure. The 8s were 48 college undergraduates. They were run individually.The paired associates were presented by means of a Kodak Carousel projector. The presentation interval for all items, whether reinforced presentations (stimulus term paired with response term), test presentations (stimulus term alone), or other filler events (matrices or blanks), was 2 sec. There was a .5 sec interval between presentations.Each 8 was presented 10 lists of eight paired associates. Guesses were required if 8 did not know the correct response on a test trial. When a matrix of random numbers appeared, 8 was required to read off the numbers in the matrix as fast as possible. There were five different matrix slides used for all 8s. The matrices contained more than enough numbers to keep 8 occupied during the presentation interval. No specific instructions were given 8 as to what to do during the blank slide presentations.Design. The experimental design involved the four within-list conditions and the two between-list conditions seen in Table 1. The four within-list conditions which specified reinforcement-test sequence were RTRTT, R-ltTT, RTTRTT, and R--RTT. Those items in which there is one event intervening between the two Psychon. Sci., 1968, Vol. 10 (6) Cycles through the list: 1 2 3 4 5 6 GREGORY L. BELENKY, STANFORD MEDICAL SCHOOL MICHAEL COLE, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE RMM R T T (B J stands for a blank slide. (MJ stands for a number matrix.reinforced trials will be referred to as the "Short" condition and those items in which there are two events intervening will be referred to as the "Long" condition. In a like manner, we will designate items with test trials in the interval between th...

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of test trials in paired-associate learning

Belenky

1968

Psychon Sci

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“…One can assume that the underlying process of association formation is itself step-like. There is precedent for this in the older verbal learning literature (5,23,24), where it was shown that learning to recall a given word in a list of repeatedly presented words occurs in an all-or-nothing manner. This result led quite naturally to the assumption that the formation of an association was all or none.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The learning curve: Implications of a quantitative analysis

Gallistel

Fairhurst²,

Balsam³

2004

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

504

616

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The negatively accelerated, gradually increasing learning curve is an artifact of group averaging in several commonly used basic learning paradigms (pigeon autoshaping, delay-and trace-eyeblink conditioning in the rabbit and rat, autoshaped hopper entry in the rat, plus maze performance in the rat, and water maze performance in the mouse). The learning curves for individual subjects show an abrupt, often step-like increase from the untrained level of responding to the level seen in the well trained subject. The rise is at least as abrupt as that commonly seen in psychometric functions in stimulus detection experiments. It may indicate that the appearance of conditioned behavior is mediated by an evidence-based decision process, as in stimulus detection experiments. If the appearance of conditioned behavior is taken instead to reflect the increase in an underlying associative strength, then a negligible portion of the function relating associative strength to amount of experience is behaviorally visible. Consequently, rate of learning cannot be estimated from the group-average curve; the best measure is latency to the onset of responding, determined for each subject individually.

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“…This approach was fruitfully used by Estes (1960) in his studies of one-trial learning and by Tulving (1964) in his analysis of inter-versus intratrial forgetting in multitrial free recall. In this last part of the article, we will apply this technique to measure the correlation between forward and backward associative strengths in successive cued-recall tests.…”

Section: Yule's Q and The Methods Of Successive Testsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to this associative symmetry hypothesis (ASH), each member of the associated pair can recover the entire pattern, independent of the order of presentation (Asch, 1968;Asch & Ebenholtz, 1962;Rock & Ceraso, 1964). Experimental evidence on the equality of forward and backward associative recall, discussed below, and the arguments in favor of one-trial associative learning (e.g., Estes, 1960;Rock, 1957) lent support to this position.With the ascent of computational and distributed memory models, this basic question concerning the nature of episodic associations gained renewed importance. Distributed memory models make explicit assumptions about the mechanisms of association.…”

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confidence: 94%

Associative symmetry and memory theory

2002

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This article examines a basic question concerning the nature of episodic associations. On the one hand, associations can be viewed as directional pointers connecting different mental representations. While studying a pair of words in a memory experiment (A-B), subjects strengthen a pointer going from A to B and a separate one going from B to A, thus forming two distinct unidirectional associations. This view maps onto the classic independent association hypothesis (IAH), which viewed forward and backward associations as distinct, separately modifiable (e.g., Ebbinghaus,1885Ebbinghaus, /1913Robinson, 1932), and even statistically independent (Wolford, 1971).Arguing against the IAH, Gestalt theorists promoted a principle of associative symmetry (Asch & Ebenholtz, 1962;Köhler, 1947). This alternate view saw an episodically formed association is a holistic conjunction of the A and B representations, without any directional A®B or B®A pointers. According to this associative symmetry hypothesis (ASH), each member of the associated pair can recover the entire pattern, independent of the order of presentation (Asch, 1968;Asch & Ebenholtz, 1962;Rock & Ceraso, 1964). Experimental evidence on the equality of forward and backward associative recall, discussed below, and the arguments in favor of one-trial associative learning (e.g., Estes, 1960;Rock, 1957) lent support to this position.With the ascent of computational and distributed memory models, this basic question concerning the nature of episodic associations gained renewed importance. Distributed memory models make explicit assumptions about the mechanisms of association. As we will show in this article, some models assume symmetrical associative learning of item representations, whereas other models allow for separate formation of forward and backward associations.Studies aimed at discriminating the IAH from the ASH examined the dependence of recall on the temporal order of encoding.This was examined by using the classic pairedassociate method. Subjects studied randomly paired meaningful items, denoted A-B, in temporal succession. Then the experimenter tested each pair by either probing with A for recall of B (a forward test) or probing with B for recall of A (a backward test). A finding of asymmetric retrieval (e.g., better forward than backward recall) was seen as evidence against ASH and in favor of IAH. Similarly, a failure to find the expectedasymmetry result was taken as support for the ASH, at least on grounds of parsimony (e.g., Asch & Ebenholtz, 1962;Murdock, 1962).Even if forward and backward recall are equivalent on average, this does not strictly imply symmetry. Rather, the ASH requires that for every studied pair, A-B, the probability of recalling B given A perfectly predicts the probability of recalling A given B. That is, the correlation between forward and backward recall, at the level of individual pairs, must be 1.0. At the other extreme, the IAH (e.g., Wolford, 1971) implies a correlation of 0.0 between forward and backward recall.Although there ha...

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Learning theory and the new "mental chemistry."

Cited by 311 publications

References 15 publications

The role of test trials in paired-associate learning

The role of test trials in paired-associate learning

The learning curve: Implications of a quantitative analysis

Associative symmetry and memory theory

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