The congruency effect: just what is being learned?
G. H. Bower, S. Thompson-Schill, and E. Tulving (1994) found that when stimulus-response sets in A-B, A-C learning belong to unique categories (congruent-triads), learning appropriate responses appear rapid and memory performance on a modified modified free recall (MMFR) test is enhanced. Bower et al. assumed that category cues protect associations from interpair interference, allowing more rapid learning. However, unlike arbitrary pairs, congruent pairs also allow a reliance on preexperimental associations. As a result, MMFR test performance may not be an unbiased test of what was learned. In the present experiment, free recall (FR) demonstrated that responses were learned approximately equally in all conditions and that the pattern of clustering was compatible with the hypothesis that preexperimental associations continue to play a major role in FR test performance.
Soltani
M
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Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, USA.
Kroll
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NE
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D010153:Paired-Associate Learning; D012660:Semantics