Abstract
The process of paired-associate learning contains aquisition stage and recall stage. The acquisition stage is a memorizing process. After the acquisition has been completed, the recall test is undertaken, thus it contains recall stage. In each stage, the condition of “pattern” was introduced into the experimental situation and the effect of meaningfulness of materials was investigated.
The concept of pattern is defined as the spatial and successive arrangement (configuration) of materials.
In acquisition stage a memory-drum was used, stimulus words (S) being exposed in left side for 2 sec. and then response words (R) in right side for 2 sec. Such a method of presentation, i.e., S-R, is designated as acquisition pattern.
In the recall test, some subjects were tested by the method of forward test (F test) and others backward test (B test).
In the method of F test, subjects were asked to recall R when they were presented S. In the B test, subjects were asked to recall S when they were presented R. Such methods of F test and B test are designated as recall pattern.
Materials were meaningful syllables (M), nonsense syllables (N), and also Japanese alphabet KANA (C). To investigate the function of meaningfulness of R, lists of C-N and C-M were prepared. And to investigate the function of meaningfulness of S, N-C and M-C were prepared. Each list had eight pairs.
These lists were learned under the condition of acquisition pattern.
In general, it is believed that intelligence is one of the factors which determined the learning. So subjects were balanced by the scores of intelligence scales; they were 80 students of junior high school age (20 subjects were assigned to each list). At the recall stage, each of these groups was divided into two sub-groups. Then, one was tested by the method of F test, and the other was tested by the method of B test.
Acquisition was easy when S or R was meaningful. So meaningfulness of S or R facilitates the acquisition. At the early stage of learning, acquisition seemed to relate to the easiness of formation of association.(The degree of easiness of formation of association was measured by the presenting number before formation of association between S and R.) The meaningfulness of R facilitated the acquisition through the learning period. And the meaningfulness of S facilitated acquisition at the later stage of learning.
Considering the recall pattern conditions, the situation of B test was more difficult than that of F test. But meaningful words also recalled well in B test situation.
The effect of meaningfulness was significant especially at the situation where the recall was difficult.
