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PSY 445: Learning & Memory
Chapter 6:
Verbal Learning
Nonsense!
Verbal Learning
The learning (or memorization) of lists of
words or other items
• Concerned with the acquisition and retention of
such items in an effort to describe the basic laws of
learning
A pioneer of the scientific
study of memory
Hermann Ebbinghaus
(1850-1909)
• Worked as philosopher at University in Berlin
• Experiments published in classic volume entitled: ‘Über
das Gedächtnis’ (1885)
Memory experiments of Ebbinghaus:
Focus on retention of newly learned material
His goal: study memory
in ‘pure’ form
• Invented lists nonsense
syllables to minimize
influence of meaningful
associations and learner’s
history
Nonsense syllables 
Verbal Learning
Ebbinghaus rigorously controlled the
timing, the order of presentation, and
number of practice trials, all key factors in
learning according to associative theory.
Amazingly, he served as his own participant! But his
findings have been repeated countless times in
conventional experiments.
Rather than memorize poems, speeches, or other writings,
he created lists of artificial verbal units called “nonsense
syllables” like the ones on the left. Each consisted of a
consonant, then a vowel, then a consonant.
Ebbinghaus' Experiments
Serial Learning Experiments
Learning to criterion
 Ebbinghaus would repeatedly attempt to learn the
material until he achieved a perfect reproduction
(every item memorized in the order originally
presented)
“Method of savings”
 Subtracting the number of repetitions required to
relearn material to a criterion from the number
originally required to learn the material to the same
criterion
Verbal Learning
Measuring Memory (Retention)
Savings Score
Number of Trials to Learn – Number of Trials to Relearn
Number of Trials to Learn
(Multiplying by 100 makes the score a percentage)
X 100
Ebbinghaus' Serial Learning Experiments:
Important Findings
Recollection of words drops dramatically during the
first hour of learning
Ebbinhaus’ Forgetting Curve 
Ebbinghaus' Serial Learning Experiments:
Important Findings
 List-length effect
◦ Ease of learning and amount of information not related in linear
one-to-one fashion
◦ Disproportionate increase in difficulty with more than 7 syllables
 Serial Position (Primacy/Recency) Effect
◦ Subjects are much more likely to remember items at the
beginning of a list (primacy effect) and at the end of the list
(recency effect)
Serial Position Effect
Several hypotheses have been proposed:
Anchoring
• End items in a list serve as anchors
• Kurbat, Shevall, & Rips (1998): student’s academic year
Rehearsal
• Rehearsal patterns differ across serial positions
• First items have less competition with other items for
rehearsal; last items have extended rehearsal
Interference
• Proactive and retroactive interference are effecting middle
items the most
See next slide 
Types of Interference
Proactive Interference
• The disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall
of new information (old materials increasing the
forgetting of new materials)
Retroactive Interference
• The disruptive effect of new information on the
recall of previous information (new materials
increasing the forgetting of old materials)
Time 1
Time 2
Study French Study Spanish
Study French Study Spanish
Test
Recall Spanish
Recall French
Interference
Proactive
Retroactive
Serial Position Effect
Zhao (1997)
Procedure
• Participants watched Super Bowl commercials; a few days later attempted
recall
• Thus, researchers were able to naturally vary the amount of proactive and
retroactive interference
Results
• Strong primacy effect only
Interpretation
• With 55 or so commercials, there was a preponderance of proactive
interference
• Delays along with the large amounts of PI virtually wiped out the recency
effect
Serial Position Curve
Murdock (1962)
Another hypothesis is that the primacy effect is the
result of superior recall from long-term memory of the
first few words in the list; whereas the recency effect is
caused by recall from short-term memory
Primacy
• The first few words enter an empty long-term
memory and get proportionately more attention
than the words in the middle of the list and can thus
be transferred into long-term memory
Recency
• The last few words are still in short-term memory at
the time of recall
Serial Learning
Item-to-Item Association Theory
Applying the theories of empiricist philosophers,
Ebbinghaus originally maintained that serial lists were
learned by associating each item with the item that directly
followed it:
A
B
C
D
E
These connections between adjacent items are called direct
associations. They form because of “temporal contiguity”:
Adjacent items “touch” in time.
Each time the list is practiced, the associations between
these contiguous items are strengthened.
Item-to-Item Association Theory:
Criticisms
Lashley (1951)
 Item-to-item associations would be too slow to
accommodate quick, skilled, and unified behaviors
 Well-learned sequences, like playing notes on a piano, are
performed too fast to be the result of item-to-item
associations
 Must be earlier anticipation and activation of responses prior
to their being performed than would occur from the
immediately preceding items
 Well-learned items seem to be grouped
Serial Learning
Ebbinghaus’ Remote Association Theory
A
B
C
D
E
Later, Ebbinghaus discovered that associations also form
between non-adjacent items. He called these remote
associations.
Serial Learning
Ebbinghaus’ Remote Association Theory
A
B
C
D
E
Remote associations are weaker than direct associations. After
saying A, you have a stronger tendency to say B than to say C.
Remote associations cause errors early in practice. With more
practice trials, direct associations gain more strength than
remote associations.
Serial Learning
Ebbinghaus’ Remote Association Theory
A
B
C
D
E
5
5
5
5
5
The greater the time gap between two items, the weaker
will be the remote association between them.
For example, suppose each item appeared for 5 seconds.
Serial Learning
Ebbinghaus’ Remote Association Theory
A
B
C
D
E
5
5
5
5
5
A and D are separated by 10 seconds whereas A and C are
separated by 5 seconds. The remote association between A
and D will be weaker.
Remote Association Theory: Support
Rubin (1977)
 In long-term recall of material such as prose,
poetry, or speeches – lines and phrases in the
middle are sometimes forgotten
 However, we can recall portions that come later
and continue to the end
 Remote associations may account for this
Serial Learning:
Learning Items and Their Positions
 Sequence Issues
 Serial learning requires both learning of item and also
remembering its position in the list
 Partial forgetting is a real life problem
 Eyewitness memory issue – remembering it happened
but misrecalling when
 List Issues
 Remembering correct position but confusing which
list it is in
Hintzman, Block, & Summers (1973)
See next slide 
Serial Learning:
Learning Items and Their Positions
Hintzman, Block, & Summers (1973)
Procedure
 Presented four lists in succession
 Participants had to recall which list and its serial
position in the list
Results
 List: recall not good
 Position: recall good
Interpretation
 We often experience partial forgetting
Paired Associate Learning
• In this paradigm – people memorize pairs of
items (BIRD-GLOVE):
A
B
▫ AB – the first item (A) is the stimulus and
the second item (B) is the response
Paired Associate Learning
In the learning
phase subjects see
pairs of items.
In the test phase
subjects see one item
of the pair and must
identify the other.
Stimuli can be visual (like these) or verbal (pairs of words)
Analysis of Paired Associate Learning
 Three tasks involved:
 Stimulus Discrimination
 Response Learning
 SR Associating
Analysis of Paired Associate Learning
Stimulus Discrimination
 Several stimuli used in paired-association
tasks; they vary in degree of similarity
 High similarity reduces discrimination
and leads to higher error rate
Lockhead & Crist (1980)
See next slide 
Analysis of Paired Associate Learning
Lockhead & Crist (1980)
Procedure
 Asked 5 year-olds to make a distinction between
letters
Results
 They initially show trouble distinguishing
between b & d and p & q
 However, when they marked letters with a
distinctive element they had better success 
Interpretation
 Adding distinctive elements can facilitate
learning; could slowly phase these out later
Analysis of Paired Associate Learning
Response Learning
 Ease or difficulty in learning the paired-associate
response items can vary
 Meaningful response items are learned more easily
Analysis of Paired Associate Learning
SR Associating
 Stimulus and response items need to become
connected
 Prior knowledge can facilitate or inhibit learning
 Cognitive elaboration – additional information can
help stimulus and response terms
Pressley et al. (1987)
 Participants were better able to recall that were
presented in the form of person/action sentences
Paired Associate Learning:
Meaningfulness & Direction of Associations
This type of learning seems to benefit from
putting meaning into the associations
• Backward association (R  S) not as effective as
forward associations (S  R)
• However, practicing this format can help both
Free Recall
In this experimental procedure the subjects are
asked to recall the items presented to them in any
order they wish
• Simplest way to test the effects of subjects studying verbal
material
Serial–Position Effect
• Both primacy and recency are present
• Primacy is increased by slow presentation and if
items are familiar
• Recency is best produced when testing
immediately follows list presentation; delays will
cause this effect to be lost
Free Recall: Rehearsal
Rehearsal facilitates retention in these experiments
Keeney, Cannizzo, & Flavell (1967)
Procedure
• Researcher presented six photographs to children wearing
space helmets then pointed to three that the children were to
remember; visor lowered
• Researchers monitored self-talk of the children
• Recall test after 15 second delay
Results
• Recall was better for children who rehearsed the most
• Later, had other child practice self-talk and their recall
increased to that of the others
Interpretation
• Rehearsal facilitates retention
Free Recall: Rehearsal
Ornstein, Naus, & Liberty (1975)
Procedure
• 18 word lists were recalled by children in the 3rd, 6th, and 8th
grades
Results
• Older children were more likely to use distributed rehearsal
and recalled more words
Recall
Rehearsals
Free Recall: Rehearsal
Ornstein, Naus, & Liberty (1975)
Interpretation
• Recall capacity develops with age
• Rehearsal strategies are used more and more effectively as
we age (distributed practice)
Naus, Ornstein, & Aivano (1977)
• Age differences in recall can be reduced by getting younger
participants to use more effective rehearsal strategies
Organization
Refers to using existing knowledge to group together
items that are related in some manner
Associative Clustering
• Related words are often recalled together
Subjective Organization
• When words are not associated people tend to form their own
personal associations
Categorical Clustering
• Putting words into categories can help with recall
• Category prompting tends to facilitate recall by increasing access
to categories of items that might otherwise be forgotten
• Once at least one item form a category is recalled, often other
items from that category are remembered as well
See next slide 
Tulving & Pearlstone (1966)
High school students listened to lists of 12, 24, and 48 words
Procedure & Results 
Interpretation
 The effect of category prompting indicates that more was available
in memory than could be accessed by unassisted free recall
Available vs. Accessible Memories
Accessible Memories
• These memories can be recalled or retrieved
Available Memories
• Memories that contain learned information
available in our memory store, but may not be
retrievable (at least not at the present time)
Brown & McNeil (1966)
• Referred to available memories as "tip-of-the-tongue”
Available vs. Accessible Memories
Cued Recall
• Method of receiving hints to help with memory
Roediger (1973)
Cue Overload Effect
• Too many cues can negate advantages gained from initial cue
• Several cues may compete with retrieval of the remaining
words and bottle up the retrieval process
Recall vs. Recognition vs. Relearning
 Free Recall Test
 Reproduce studied information
 Recognition Test
 Locate previously studied items that are presented with
unstudied (distractor) items
 Relearning Test
 The initially studied items are relearned (after a delay) and the
amount of savings is accessed
 The tests are not comparable and each produces a
different type of measurement
Recall vs. Recognition vs. Relearning
Shimamura et al. (1987)
Procedure
 Alzheimer’s patients and age-matched control group
 Free Recall Test; Recognition Test
Results
 Both groups did significantly better on Recognition Test
 Alzheimer's group: 15% and 60%
 Control group: 40% and 85%
Interpretation
 Recognition is a more sensitive test as it seems to be
detecting a type of learning that a recall test is missing
Recognition: Remembering vs. Knowing
We seem to possess both remembering and
knowing types of memories
Remembering
• For example, in academic learning students might
remember a certain lecture or class discussion
Knowing
• For example, students may know certain words,
phrases, dates, etc. related to a discipline without
recalling specifically how, when, or where they
learned them
Relationships among Verbal-Learning tasks
Paired-associate learning and serial-learning
tests are positively correlated
• This suggests a common type of ability
Free-recall performance is unrelated to the
other two
• This suggests that different abilities or strategies are
being tapped
Different methodology used
• PA & SL usually has multi-trial learning tasks; FR is
usually single-trial
• Capacity differences seem to be apparent between PA
& SL with FR
Application: Mnemonics
Various schemes, strategies, or procedures to aid
encoding and retrieval (for example, acronyms)
Mnemonics Techniques
The Keyword Mnemonic
• Used to aid foreign language acquisition
• A mediating word from your language that sounds like the
foreign word is used
Imagery Mnemonics
• Visual imagery is used to help you remember things
• Method of loci – “mental walk” used to help people
remember sequence of things to do, etc.
• Peg word–rhyming technique
Mnemonics: A thing of the past?
Acronyms are sometimes used; others not so
much
• External reminders (notes, lists, etc.) appear to be
easier
• Electronic memory aids have replaced mnemonics
Credits
 Some of the slides in this presentation prepared with the assistance of
the following web sites:
◦ www.csupomona.edu/.../PSY335%20PPTs/Baddeley/BChap8....
◦ psych.fullerton.edu/navarick/verbal.ppt
◦ www.csupomona.edu/.../PSY335%20PPTs/Baddeley/BChap1....
◦ www.psych.ufl.edu/~fischler/CP/CP_Retrieval_Sonja.ppt