Word,nonword, and visual paired associate learning in Dutch dyslexic children

Verbal and non-verbal learning were investigated in 21 8-11-year-old dyslexic children and chronological-age controls, and in 21 7-9-year-old reading-age controls. Tasks involved the paired associate learning of words, nonwords, or symbols with pictures. Both learning and retention of associations were examined. Results indicated that dyslexic children had difficulty with verbal learning of both words and nonwords. In addition, analysis of the errors made during nonword learning showed that both phonological errors and general learning errors were distributed similarly for the reading groups. This suggests that nonword learning in dyslexics is slower, but not qualitatively different from normal readers. Furthermore, no differences were found between the dyslexics and age-matched normal readers on non-verbal learning. Long-term retention of the learned visual-verbal associations (both words and nonwords) was not impaired in dyslexic children as compared to normal readers. Finally, phonological awareness ability was assessed. Dyslexics performed worse than age-matched normal readers, but similar to reading-age controls.     

Information processing by performers and observers in a paired associate learning task

The effects of two training procedures on learning and performance are compared. Performers select a response alternative for each stimulus on Trial 1 and receive feedback in terms of “Right” or “Wrong”. Observers receive the same information by listening to the experimenter. Experiment I tests the hypothesis that performers and observers are using a different learning strategy when there are only two response alternatives available for each stimulus on Trial 1. A recognition procedure was used on Trial 2; each stimulus was followed by four alternatives, two of them being the same as presented on Trial 1. Subjects have to recognize the two “old” alternatives. Performers are always better at recognizing the chosen alternative, whereas observers are better at recognizing the correct alternative. Experiment II extends the comparison between performers and observers to a task with four response alternatives on Trial 1. There are no longer differences in performance between the two training procedures.     

Recall and recognition measures of paired associate learning in healthy aging

Associate-recognition has received little attention as a potential clinical tool for detecting early Alzheimer's disease (AD). As an important preliminary stage to investigating the paradigm's diagnostic utility, we designed and administered a verbal associate-recognition task to healthy elderly participants (n = 62) and compared their performance to that on traditional cued-recall PAL. In both test conditions, the stimulus list comprised of a mixture of highly imageable and less imageable word pairs. Overall, performance on the associate-recognition task was superior to that on the cued-recall analogue. This 'recognition advantage' was not attributable to the higher baseline or chance guessing rate in the associate-recognition condition, as the size of the recognition advantage varied across learning trials and stimulus imageability. In comparison to performance on the imageable stimuli, performance on the less imageable stimuli was poor in both associate-recognition and cued-recall conditions. Across the delay, performances were more likely to drop in the cued-recall condition than the associate-recognition condition. These results suggest that verbal associate-recognition may be clinically efficacious and better tolerated in elderly populations than traditional cued-recall paradigms. Although these results are encouraging, further research is required to examine the utility of associate-recognition in clinical populations, particularly early AD.     

Effects of age on contextually mediated associations in paired associate learning

Older and young adults learned single-function lists of paired associates with no contextual overlap (e.g., J-K, L-M) and double-function lists of paired associates consisting of chains of pairs (e.g., A-B, B-C). Although young adults outperformed older adults on both pair types, there was a robust Pair Type x Age interaction. Evidence from intrusion analyses shows that older adults performed better than would be expected on the contextually overlapping double-function pairs because they were less subject to response competition for the double-function pairs. Young adults made a larger proportion of backward and remote intrusions to double-function probes than did older adults. Thus, group differences in both correct-recall probabilities and intrusion analysis suggest that backward and transitive associations are sensitive to aging. The results are discussed within the theoretical framework of the temporal context model and the hypothesis that older adults are impaired at forming new item-context associations.     

The role of imagery in incidental learning of educable retarded and normal children

Forty-five educable retarded and 45 normal children were given an orientation task in which noun- and picture-paired associates were presented once or four times under one of three instructional conditions: intentional imagery, incidental imagery, or intentional control (no imagery). An immediate associative recall test showed both imagery conditions to be superior to the intentional control condition. Furthermore, imagery instructions facilitated incidental recall of the retarded Ss equal to the recall of normal children in the intentional condition. Four presentations of pairs in contrast to one presentation during the orientation task improved the learning of both groups. The recall of retarded Ss in contrast to normal Ss, however, was greater with four presentations under imagery instructions than under intentional control instructions. The results were discussed in terms of imagery processes and their educational implications.     

The relationship between paired associate learning and phonological skills in normally developing readers

Seventy-five 6- to 11-year-old children were administered tests of phonological awareness, verbal short term memory (STM), and visual-verbal paired associate learning (PA learning) to investigate their relationship with word recognition and decoding skills. Phonological awareness was a stronger concurrent predictor of word recognition than verbal STM, and phonological awareness but not verbal STM was a predictor of learning in the PA learning task. Importantly, measures of phonological awareness and PA learning both accounted for independent variance in word reading, even when decoding skill was controlled. The results suggest that PA learning and phonological awareness tasks tap two separate mechanisms involved in learning to read. The results are discussed in relation to current theories of reading development.     

The effect of repeated presentation of items on paired associate learning

An experimental design is outlined which allows the probability of an item being learned to be related to the number of presentations of that item. The results of an experiment of this design are considered in relation to the hypothesis that learning is a single trial occurrence. The results are found to support neither the single trial hypothesis nor the incremental hypothesis. A “dual factor” hypothesis is put forward and considered in relation to these and other experimental findings. The scoring procedures employed allow consideration of the response learning and the associative phases of paired associate learning. It is suggested that the response learning phase may be explained by the single trial hypothesis and the associative phase by the dual factor hypothesis.     

Visual perseveration in normal and mentally retarded children

Visual perseveration was investigated within mentally retarded and second, fifth, and eighth grade normal children (Ns = 12 each group). Subjects matched an auditorially presented click to the onset and offset of visually presented stimuli. Time differences between visual stimulus offset and the point at which subjects reported simultaneity of the click and visual stimulus offset was assumed to reflect visual perseveration. Results showed: (a) no differences between the normal children as a function of age; (b) no difference between groups for stimuli of 100 msec. or longer duration; and (c) retarded subjects judged stimuli of 20 and 50 msec. to be of shorter duration than did normal subjects. This highly specific distinction between retarded and normal subjects suggests a difference in an early stage of perceptual processing.