STIMULUS SIMILARITY AND TRANSFER IN LONG-TERM PAIRED-ASSOCIATE LEARNING

• Published in: The British journal of psychology Vol. 62; no. 1; pp. 37 - 40
• Main Authors: McGLAUGHLIN, ALEX, DALE, H. C. A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.02.1971; Cambridge University Press
• ISSN: 0007-1269; 2044-8295
• DOI: 10.1111/j.2044-8295.1971.tb02008.x

Acoustic, semantic, visual and formal similarity were studied in the A‐B, A′‐B transfer paradigm. Substantial, highly significant, positive transfer was obtained with stimuli that were acoustically or semantically related. For those visually or formally related, the transfer was not significant. It was concluded that the failure to find significant effects of acoustic similarity in previous long‐term memory paired‐associate learning studies has been due to a combination of low levels of acoustic similarity with the use of the relatively insensitive retroactive‐interference technique.