Verbal learning and memory

Two Letter Discrimination Sequences: High-Confusion-Alternatives First versus Low-Confusion-Alternatives First

The procedure of sequencing visual discriminations (the letters b, d, p, and q) in an easy to difficult progression was investigated. In a low-confusion-alternatives first sequence only one choice in an inital match-to-sample task was similar to the target letter. In a high-confusion-alternatives first sequence all the choices in the initial task were similar to the target letter. Twenty preschoolers were randomly assigned to either a low-confusion-alternatives first or a high-confusion-alternatives first group. The preschoolers who began with the low-confusions alternatives reached criterion on a subsequent successive match-to-sample task in significantly fewer trials, M = 31.0 versus 69.1.

Verbal vs. nonverbal and complex vs. simple responses in the paired-associate learning of poor readers

The relative ability of 38 fourth-grade boys, good and poor readers, to learn paired-associate lists requiring either verbal or nonverbal responses was assessed with four different tasks. Two of the tasks required either simple or complex verbal responses, while the other two involved learning simple and complex oral, nonverbal responses. The stimuli for all tasks were letter-like visual figures drawn on cards. The good readers learned more efficiently overall, but the major differences between reading groups occurred on the tasks requiring verbal responses.