PubMed HealthSearch

SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “Paired-Associate Learning”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Verbal vs. nonverbal and complex vs. simple responses in the paired-associate learning of poor readers.

The relative ability of 38 fourth-grade boys, good and poor readers, to learn paired-associate lists requiring either verbal or nonverbal responses was assessed with four different tasks. Two of the tasks required either simple or complex verbal responses, while the other two involved learning simple and complex oral, nonverbal responses. The stimuli for all tasks were letter-like visual figures drawn on cards. The good readers learned more efficiently overall, but the major differences between reading groups occurred on the tasks requiring verbal responses.

Child

Differential effects of age and cerebral atrophy upon span of immediate recall and paired-associate learning in older patients suspected of dementia.

Seventy-eight patients suspected of dementia, 50 years of age or older and without evidence of focal cerebral lesion or systemic illness, were administered the Digit-Span Forward and Paired-Associate Learning subtests of the Wechsler Memory Scale. Computerized axial tomography, allowing a visualization and measurement of the lateral ventricles and cortical sulci, was employed to measure cerebral atrophy. Four groups were defined as follows: (1) age 50-69, without atrophy (N = 27), (2) age 50-69, with atrophy (N = 17), (3) age 70-89, without atrophy (N = 18), (4) age 70-89, with atrophy (N = 16). Results of analyses of variance indicate that Digit-Span is affected by cerebral atrophy but not by age, while Paired-Associate Learning is affected by both age and cerebral atrophy. No interaction effect between age and cerebral atrophy was found for either task. These results are discussed within the context of previous research, and implications for both models of memory and theories of the effects of cerebral atrophy in different ag groups are suggested.

Age Factors

Amitriptyline- and mianserin-induced changes in acquisition of paired-association learning-task.

1 The double-blind study on twenty healthy students was an attempt at assessing the effects of 2-week's treatment with amitriptyline (25 mg three times a day) and mianserin (10 mg three times a day), each alone or separatively inbibed with alcohol (0.5 g/kg) on the immediate memory and on the acquisition of a paired-association learning-task. 2 Amitriptyline impaired both the short-term memory-span and acquisition, and alcohol potentiated these effects. The action of mianserin did not deviate significantly from that of the placebo, and it also failed to interact with alcohol. 3 It is concluded that the decrement in learning capacity, that occurs after the 2-week's treatment with therapeutic doses of amitriptyline, reflects changes in both the intrinsic and the regulatory mechanisms of learning.

Adult

Imagery in the associative learning of schizophrenics.

The present experiment is similar to Bower's (1970) study on imagery as a relational organizer in paired-associate (PA) learning with normals. Three groups of 20 schizophrenic patients learned three different lists of 30 word-word paired-associates, which used either interactive imagery, separation imagery, or rote repetition encoding. Ss were tested on stimulus recognition and paired-associate recall, given recognition. Differences in stimulus recognition and paired-associate recall were not significant across the three encoding methods. Results suggest that schizophrenics are unable to benefit from imaginal cues to facilitate learning in a manner similar to normals. These results are interpreted as providing additional support for the notion that the schizophrenics' cognitive deficit is associated with the relational organizing process of learning.

Adult

Transfer of stimulus differentiation and perceptual selection rules.

Three experiments examined the conditions under which transfer of stimulus differentiation occurs. Two experiments involved transfer in paired associate lists having identical stimuli and re-paired response terms compared with lists having different stimuli. In one experiment, transfer was determined for lists of three-word stimuli in which various elements were shared among the stimuli. The pattern of redundancy was such that the spatial position of a discriminative element was either consistent or not consistent in different items, or there was no discriminative element. Transfer of differentiation was obtained only when position was constant. In the second experiment, stimuli were single words and were either unrelated, rhymed, or were instances of common concepts. No evidence of transfer of differentiation was obtained with either rhymes or concepts. In the third experiment, subjects learned pairs in which the stimuli were single letters; then subjects transferred to a list in which either rhyming or unrelated stimuli began with the same letters. Transfer was not differential.

Discrimination Learning

Generalization gradients following differential intradimensional autoshaping.

Three pigeons were trained on a differential, intradimensional autoshaped discrimination. A 45 degrees line tilt was always paired with food whereas a 15 degrees line tilt was never paired with food. All subjects learned the discrimination within 17 sessions. The pigeons were then given generalization tests in extinction over seven line tilts (0 degrees, 15 degrees, 30 degrees, 45 degrees, 60 degrees, 75 degrees and 90 degrees). The subjects yielded generalization gradients with maxima at 45 degrees and minima at 15 degrees. An area shift, but no peak shift, was found for each subject.

Animals

Age, sex, and hemisphrere asymmetry differences induced by a concurrent memory processing task.

Subjects in three age groups matched simultaneously presented pairs of visual words or geometric shape stimuli as belonging in a "same" or "different" category. No age effects were observed unless subjects were also required to repeat the sequence of the last three "same-different" responses immediately following each trial. Cerebral asymmetry effects were expected for the word and shape dimensions, but were not observed. Asymmetry effects for the same-different dimensions were noted and allowed inference regarding serial and parallel processing effects. When required to repeat the sequence of past responses following each trial, older males showed an increase in time to make the same judgments. Older females showed increased right vs left visual field processing times when required to repeat the sequence of same-different responses following each trial.

Adolescent

Effect of two weeks' treatment with thioridazine, chlorpromazine, sulpiride and bromazepam, alone or in combination with alcohol, on learning and memory in man.

Forty paid healthy male students participated in two subacute experiments of 6 weeks each. In the first trial 20 of them received bromazepam, thioridazine, and placebo double blind cross over for 2 weeks each, and in the second trial the active agents administered to the other 20 participants were chlorpromazine and sulpiride. The tests used were paired associate learning with nonsense syllables and digit memory span. Before testing the subjects took either an alcoholic or a nonalcoholic bitter drink. As in the previous study from this laboratory, alcohol was found to impair learning capacity. Of the drugs used only bromazepam impaired learning significantly, and the combined effect of alcohol and bromazepam on learning capacity was very deleterious. The adrenolytic effect of drugs did not correlate with their effect on learning. Caution is necessary when prescribing bromazepam for active outpatients at least in doses used in this study.

Adult

Menière's disease. II. A neuropsychological study.

23 Menière patients were examined with a extensive battery of neuro-psychological tests. In a previous investigation, the authors had demonstrated that patients with long-duration Menière's disease had psychological disturbances, presumably localized in the nondominant hemisphere. In the present investigation, the patients had short-duration Menière's disease, and we were unable to replicate the results of the former investigation. It is concluded that the central changes in nondominant hemisphere function develop over a long period of time. It is hoped for that further neuropsychological investigations of Menière patients will give more information on what is primary in Menière's disease: peripheral, sensory or central neurological changes.

Adult

Semantic desensitization: language conditioning or demand characteristics manipulation?

Previous studies in language conditioning, especially those called semantic desensitization, have shown changes in self-report, behavioral measures, and the semantic meaning of the target concept following treatment. This last has been proposed as a causal variable but experimental and control groups differed greatly in terms of their demand characteristics. The present study included a placebo group with demand characteristics similar to those of the control group. The target area was self-concept (18 male Ss, 9 female Ss). Significant changes in self-report and actual performance with a hand dynamometer were obtained but these were as great for the placebo group as for the experimental groups. It was suggested that factors other than conditioning are of importance in semantic desensitization.

Awareness

Perceptual reactance and task performance.

57 female subjects participated in a study in which perceptual reactance was assessed by the kinesthetic figural aftereffects test. Subjects identified as augmenters were quicker than reducers on a disjunctive reaction time task and a significant interactive effect was found on a paired-associate task. Augmenters performed better on a similar list while reducers were more effective on a dissimilar list.

Female