Acquired Word Value and Verbal Learning

Abstract

This experiment tested the hypothesis that pairing nonsense syllables with pleasant photographs would make them more learnable subsequently than would pairing them with indifferent photographs. Ss were shown syllable-photograph pairs and instructed to learn their own labels for the photographs as responses to the syllables. Half the photographs were “very pleasant” and half were “indifferent.” Next, the same syllables were made responses to 2-digit numbers in a second paired-associate list. The pleasant photographs were learned faster in Phase 1 and the pleasantly-paired syllables were learned faster in Phase 2. The superiority of the latter syllables was based partly upon greater availability at the end of Phase 1 but partly upon some independent learning effect during Phase 2. This superiority was hypothesized to be the result of greater implicit rehearsal of the pleasantly-paired syllables.