Effects of Name Learning on Serial Learning, Position Learning, and Recognition Learning with Random Shapes

Abstract

The effects of learning relevant names for random shapes on subsequent serial, position, and recognition learning were investigated in a series of four experiments. Name learning facilitated all three kinds of subsequent learning. The effect of naming was greater when an ordering of the shapes was learned as a temporal sequence (serial learning) than when it was learned as a spatial arrangement (position learning). Position learning was more rapid than serial learning, and the difference was greater for unnamed than for named shapes. Serial learning was as rapid with named shapes as with the names alone. Naming facilitated position learning even after Named and Unnamed groups had met the same criterion in recognition learning. Implications for various hypotheses concerning the mechanisms underlying the effects of naming are discussed. The results are interpreted as suggesting separate effects of naming on discriminability and on ease of association. The bearing of the findings on the question of the effective stimulus in serial learning is also considered.