Generalization of position association in rote serial learning

Summary Thirty-six Ss practiced two serial lists of identical length in haphazard alternation. At each position in a list, a maximum number of intruding responses arrived from the same position in the other list, and the frequency of intrusion from a non-identical position in the other list declined with increase of positional disparity in either direction. The reliability of this gradient-like phenomenon, which could not be verified by the method of trend analysis owing to insufficient data, is partially indicated by the occurrence of interlist intrusions at a significantly higher rate between identical than between non-identical positions. These results are interpreted as an evidence in support of the hypothesis that not only associations develop between the items of a rote series and their serial positions but also these associations generalize between positions in inverse proportion to the intervening distance.