Question

Explain the procedures for studying verbal learning.

Answer 1

The following are the procedures for studying verbal learning:

(i) Paired Associates Learning

• This method is used to learn foreign languages. A list of paired-associates is prepared and the first word is used as a stimulus, while the second word is used as a response.

• Members of each pair may be from the same language or two different languages.

• The learner is first shown both the stimulus-response pairs and instructed to remember and recall the response after the presentation of each stimulus term.

• This continues until the participant remembers all the response words without any error.

• The total number of trials taken to reach the criterion becomes the measure of paired associates learning.

(ii) Serial Learning

• This method is used to find out the ways through which participants learn the lists of verbal items and the processes involved in it.

• The participant is presented with a list of nonsense syllables, most familiar or least familiar words and interrelated words. Then, he/she is required to produce the items in the same serial order.

• During the first trial, the participant is shown the first item after which he/she has to produce the second item. If the participant fails to do that then the second item is presented and the participant has to produce the third.

• The learning trials continue until the participant remembers all the items in the given order.

(iii) Free Recall

• The participants in this method are presented with a list of words to read and speak out. After this, they are required to remember the words in any order.

• This method is used to study the kind of organisation of words made by the participants in order to store them in memory.