Abstraction in verbal paired-associate learning.

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Abstract
Compound stimuli for verbal paired-associate learning consisted of 2 CVC nonsense syllables. Several different compounds were paired with each response. Thus, the task was designed as a concept-identification task rather than as the usual paired-associate task. Each of the compound stimuli paired with a given response contained an identical CVC which could serve to identify the concept. The 2nd CVC of each compound stimulus was either irrelevant (i.e., paired with 2 different responses), or only partially relevant (i.e., paired only with a single response, but not occurring every time that response occurred). A transfer task, with each CVC presented separately, indicated that Ss had not learned to label both parts of the compound stimuli equally, but, instead, had abstracted the identical CVCs as stimuli for association; i.e., identical CVCs presented alone elicited correct responding at near-perfect performance levels, whereas nonidentical elements presented alone elicited correct responding only slightly better than new CVCs presented for the 1st time in transfer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)

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