The Effect of Isolation of Stimuli and Responses in Paired Associates

Nachmias, Jacob; Gleitman, Henry; McKenna, Virgil V.

doi:10.2307/1419753

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Previous studies with young adults have shown that the learning of associations between pairs of items is facilitated when a given pair is isolated (Erickson, 1963;Kimble & Dufort, 1955;Nachmias, Gleitman, & McKenna, 1961) and the current study demonstrates that the same is true for older adults. It is therefore feasible that because older adults' associative memory performance was enhanced by isolation, the salience of the isolate (which is based on associative memory) was also enhanced.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 76%

Age-related associative deficits and the isolation effect

Badham

Maylor

2013

Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition

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If all but one of the items in a list are similar (e.g., all black except one red), memory for the different item is enhanced (the isolation effect). Older adults generally show similar or smaller isolation effects compared to young adults, which has been attributed to age-related deficits in associative memory whereby older adults are less able to associate an isolated stimulus to its isolating feature. Experiment 1 examined the isolation effect for isolation based on spatial position, modality and color; in Experiment 2, the criterion for isolation was the associative relation between stimuli. The results consistently showed no differences between young and older participants in the magnitude of the isolation effect. Whilst age deficits in associative memory may act to reduce the isolation effect in older adults, age deficits in self-initiated processing and inhibitory functionality may counteract this reduction by enhancing the isolation effect in older adults.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 76%

Age-related associative deficits and the isolation effect

Badham

Maylor

2013

Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition

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“…However, meaningfulness appears to be confounded with isolation in this study, since it is known (Underwood & Schulz, 1960) that variations in response meaningfulness influence performance more than do variations in stimulus meaningfulness. Nachmias, Gleitman, and McKenna (1961) undertook a study to correct Kimble and Dufort's confounding. They used three types of materials: two-place numbers, nonsense syllables, and five-letter adjectives.…”

Section: Stimulus Versus Response Isolationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of the historical, empirical, and theoretical status of the von Restorff phenomenon.

Wallace¹

1965

Psychological Bulletin

252

178

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The major purpose of the review was to examine theoretical and empirical properties of the von Restorff phenomenon. A selection of studies that preceded the von Restorff article demonstrated that isolating an item by making it more vivid than the rest of the list yielded a positive influence on learning that item. Subsequent studies in a variety of contexts have been quite consistent in confirming that isolation facilitates learning of the isolated item. The present review attempts to indicate some of the specific features aiid influences of the von Restorff effect. The final section of the article presents theoretical discussions and suggested attempts to explain the isolation effect.

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“…A test of this effect (Winer, 1962, p. 311), using the published data, yielded a nonsignificant result, F (1, 26) = 1.24, £ > .25. Nachmias, Gleitman, and McKenna (1961) attempted a more rigorous investigation of differential stimulusresponse isolation effects, from which they concluded that isolation is effective on both the stimulus and the response sides of paired-associate lists, and "to about the same extent." However, the fact that they isolated either two stimulus or two response elements in each of their nine-pair lists seems unfortunate.…”

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confidence: 99%

Differential effects of stimulus and response isolation in paired associate learning.

Erickson¹

1965

Journal of Experimental Psychology

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Either the stimulus or the response of 1 S-R pair in an 8-pair list of 2letter consonants was isolated by printing it in red. Lists were presented either in the usual paired-associate manner or in a manner such that the stimuli and responses were never simultaneously exposed. Both stimulus isolation and response isolation produced an effect (p < .001), but the effect of stimulus isolation was greater (p < .001). Manner of presentation produced no detectable effect. Results were interpreted to be inconsistent with either (a) Underwood, Runquist, and Schulz's ( 1959) assumption that equal increases in stimulus and response similarity will produce equal interference effects in the associative phase of learning, or (b) an S-R intralist interference explanation for the von Restorff effect that is based solely upon reduced stimulus or response generalization.

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The Effect of Isolation of Stimuli and Responses in Paired Associates

Cited by 8 publications

References 0 publications

Age-related associative deficits and the isolation effect

Age-related associative deficits and the isolation effect

Review of the historical, empirical, and theoretical status of the von Restorff phenomenon.

Differential effects of stimulus and response isolation in paired associate learning.

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