Verbal Stimuli And Paired-Associate Learning

Abstract

College Ss were asked to select their most and least preferred word from a group of 7 words commonly used as reinforcers in learning experiments. One group of Ss learned a paired-associate task with their preferred word introduced by E following each correct pairing, and another group of Ss had their least preferred word introduced following each correct pairing. Ss in the preferred word group learned the task significantly faster than Ss in the least preferred word group. All Ss in the preferred word group attained the criterion, but 4 Ss in the least preferred group failed to attain the criterion within the limiting number of trials. There was considerable variability in the word selected as least preferred, but all Ss selected “excellent” as their most preferred word.