Synonyms
Associative memory; Episodic memory; Relational learning
Definition
Paired-associate learning (PAL) is an episodic memory paradigm in which pairs of items (e.g., “absence-hollow”) are presented during one or more learning trials. At test, the first item of the pair is presented as a cue in order to elicit a response of the second item. Memory for the test items by themselves is insufficient to support accurate PAL memory performance; rather, accurate PAL is based on whether the paired items have been associated, or bound together, in memory. PAL was first described by Mary Whiton Calkins in 1894, a time during which all learning was viewed as associations between stimuli and responses, and reflects classic “stimulus-response” assumptions that dominated experimental psychology from the early-to mid-to late twentieth century. Today, there is much interest in PAL, as psychologists view this type of memory paradigm to be representative of the kind of learning undertaken in...
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Scorpio, K.A., Islam, R., Kim, S.M., Bind, R., Borod, J.C., Bender, H.A. (2018). Paired-Associate Learning. In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_1137
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