Abstract
Concrete and abstract nouns differing in rated capacity to evoke imagery served as the common elements in a stimulus equivalence mediation paradigm. The mediation test items were nonsense syllables. Significant mediation effects were obtained in 2 experiments o Relative to control Ss, the concrete mediation group was superior to the abstract in rate of learning over mediation test trials, but not in total learning scores. Any influence of nonverbal (imaginal) mediation was apparently overshadowed by verbal chaining.
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This research was partially supported by grants to the first author from the National Research Council of Canada (Grant APA-87) and the University of Western Ontario Research Fund.
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Paivio, A., Yarmey, A.D. Abstractness of the common element in mediated learning. Psychon Sci 2, 231–232 (1965). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03343421
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03343421