Paired-Associate Transfer as a Function of Stimulus and Response Meaningfulness

Abstract

Transfer under the A-Br, A-D, and C-B paradigms, relative to a C-D control paradigm, was evaluated under 4 conditions of meaningfulness ( M) which represented the 4 combinations of high (H) and low (L) levels of both stimulus and response M. The 8 Ss assigned to each paradigm within each M condition learned 2 8-pair lists of CVC trigrams by an adjusted-learning recall procedure. There was a consistent shift from positive transfer under L-response conditions to negative transfer under H-response conditions, with the magnitude of transfer in either direction being consistently less with L than with H stimuli. The effects of response M were attributed primarily to the increased importance of response learning relative to associative interference under L-response conditions. Several additional factors were suggested to account for the effects of stimulus M.