Paired Associate Learning

Introduction

Memory is a process by which we encode, store and retrieve information and data.
(Feldman, 2011). Akin to a computer, memory can be said to be stored as one stores files on a
hard disk. The brain first receives an input, this is sensory memory. There is the subsequent
process of encoding the received data to understand it. Then we store it in our hard disk, in this
case it is the hippocampus, in the medial-temporal lobe. Finally, if at any later part of our lives
we need to accurately work on the information that we have stored, we need to have a retrieval
system in place. By retrieving information, we are basically displaying it, the same way a
computer would display information on its monitor.

The process is relatively simple but requires a basic depth of certain terms that will be
revised again in this paper. Sensory register, as the name suggests is where the stimulus is first
encountered. There are five senses, each perceived by specialized receptors. The main function
that also becomes characteristic of it is the duration for which it stores memory. Visual sensory
register, for example stores information for a brief duration of 1 second. This is so short a time
that scientists are of the opinion that the work of the sensory register is better in association with
perception rather than memory. Any piece of this brief information that is attended to gets passed
on to the next short-term memory for further processing. (Morgan et al., 1993)

Based on the amount of processing that occurs within the sensory register, the short-term
memory is an almost refined and eloquent process. It is here that the stimulus has a degree of
comprehension and has some meaning attached to it. Despite all this, it has a really low capacity,
which means that at any given point of time it can only hold a total of 7 plus or minus two items.
This is called “chunking”. Mostly due to the small capacity of the short-term memory, any new
stimulus quickly displaces previously stored losing it in the process. Whenever required, the
entire STM will be scanned in the event of retrieving any piece of information. Any information
neither lost nor retrieved moves on to the next memory stage: long-term memory.
 The process of moving information from short-term memory to long-term memory is
called rehearsal. While the name suggests a repetition of information could aid in better encoding
the said information, there are studies that contradictory information. Rather than the number of
times a piece of information is repeatedly rehearsed (maintenance rehearsal), greater emphasis
should be placed on the way it is rehearsed. This is called elaborative rehearsal. Elaborative
rehearsal consists of giving meaning and organization to the information so that it can be readily
stored with organized long-term memory.

Finally, long-term memory is the storage component. As its capacity is huge, there is
always more space for new information. Barring damage to the hippocampus or forgetfulness,
information stored in the long-term memory would persist for a long time.

The experiment uses many terms that may be unfamiliar at first. A brief explanation has
been provided in the following paragraphs.

Association in psychology is a connection or a common link that may form between a set
of ideas, events, or feelings either on a conscious or subconscious level. Associations may be
formed based on experiences or information based on past events. An association between two
stimuli is further facilitated by meaningfulness. The associations are more easily formed based
on how meaningful they are, which in turn facilitates faster learning. Verbal learning is learning
based on verbal memory which consists of words and phonemes.

Verbal learning is usually divided between response learning and the associative stage.
The first is based on a method where there is a learning of a series of complex responses and
using them as the situation demands. While it can be argued that having a proper well integrated
response would also aid in the process of forming associations, this is not a complete picture. A
second phase in verbal learning, is the “hook-up” phase and it is here that actual links first begin
to form, associating responses with appropriate stimuli. There is not a proper distinction between
the stages of response learning and associative learning. They overlap each other, but the
distinction is valuable to our understanding of the two phases.

Items with an inherent meaning to them lend themselves more easily to associative
processing. Since, the responses to these items are well integrated in our vocabulary. Also
common words or names of everyday objects are almost over learned, yet unutilized in our daily
lives. Such words cost almost no time, as response learning is not required. Associative learning,
in such cases commences almost immediately.

History and Description of the Experiment

Mary Whiton Calkin was the first woman to serve as President of the American
Psychological Association in the year 1905. When Calkin was an undergraduate student, women
were not readily accepted in such programmes. It was at Clark University and her work with
Hugo Munsterburg in 1894 that laid the foundation for her research on association and memory.

Her articles in the years 1894 and 1896, that she sought to study the nature of association.
(Madigan, 1992). Calkins was the first to use and report a paired associate methodology,
however, the term paired associates was not used by her. The very first series used by her
included colour names as cues and response being two or three digit numbers. Calkin’s work in
this field was not immediately acknowledged by many who would later use it on their own
paired associate experiments.

Paired associate learning is useful in studying and understanding the stimulus-response

relationship. This becomes more relevant, especially for behaviourists, as they work to
understand how such relationships are formed and even broken.

In learning, there are two processes, response learning and associative learning. Firstly,
the learning of the response to the stimulus. Then a bond that leads to comprehension of the
relation between the response and the concept. If such a bond could accurately describe each
other, it would aid in the process of memorizing the items quickly and efficiently.

Versions

In their article Lechner, Squire and Byrne (1999) showed that although there are a few
variations to the experiment, the basic premise remains the same. Alfred Jost, a French
endocrinologist also used a variation of the experiment, pairing syllables like A-c, B-f, and C-d
(1897). Later, Muller and Pilzecker (1900) used this to study retention and recall. Edward
Thorndike, in his article, “Memory for paired associates” (1908) to study retention of paired
associates by altering the amount of time after which subjects would have to recall the pairs.

Uses/Applications

1. Testing for Alzheimer’s and Dementia and other memory functions of the brain.
2. As a method of learning to read and write.

Above applications of the test are discussed in the review of literature given in the next section.

Criticisms

1. Reaction time may not be sufficient for the subject to completely comprehend the words.
2. Words may not be culturally relevant, could be difficult to understand.
3. Different method of memorizing like visual imagery could interfere with association
formation.

Review of Literature

Study 1
A study was conducted by Fowler, Saling, Conway and others in the year 2002 .Subjects
of the study participated in a longitudinal neuropsychological assessment to determine which
tests of the cognitive functions best predicted later development of dementia of the Alzheimer
type (DAT). There were three groups of subjects: control, patients with DAT, and questionable
dementia subjects (QD). All three groups were assessed using the Cambridge
Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) and two subtests: paired associate
learning and delayed matching to sample. A structured interview was conducted to know more
about the subject’s daily functioning. The tests were conducted on the subjects every 6 months
for two years. Notably, almost half the subjects in the QD group showed a significant
deterioration on the computerized paired associate test while maintain their scores on others
measures. In nearly every case, this deterioration was noticed far sooner than by any other
neuropsychological measure. Paired associate learning may become a valuable screening test for
DAT.
Study 2
The study was conducted by Hulme, Goetz, Gooch and others along with them in the
year 2006. There was a strong correlation between paired-associate learning tests and reading for
visual verbal task. Deleting a phoneme and the visual-verbal PAL were good measures of single
word reading and irregular word reading. Phoneme deletion was the only unique predictor for
non-word reading. This proves the view that visual learning and phonological mapping are
important skills for developing word recognition skills in reading. Any individual differences can
be detected using the paired-associate learning.

Study 3

McNerney and Radvansky conducted an experiment in 2015 to study the effect of

exercise on memory consolidation. Over time, regular exercise can lower the risk for age-related
decline in cognitive functions. However, the immediate effects of exercise on memory
consolidation in younger adults have not been fully investigated. In two experiments, the effects
of exercise were assessed on three different memory tasks. These included paired-
associate learning, procedural learning and text memory. Results indicate that performance on
procedural learning and situation model memory was increased with exercise, regardless of if
participants exercised before or after encoding. No benefit of exercise was found for paired-
associate learning. These findings suggest that intense exercise may benefit certain types of
memory consolidation.

Methodology

Problem

To study the effect of meaningfulness of stimulus – response relationship on the

formation of associations.
Hypothesis

Stimulus – Response meaningfulness has a positive effect on the formation of

associations, and consequently, on recall.

Plan

1. To conduct the experiment in two series

a. With no specific meaningful relationship between stimuli and response.
b. With logical or meaningful connections between stimuli and response.
2. To test recall of response words separately in both the series and compare.
3. To study the effect of meaningfulness of responses in the formation of
associations with the stimuli.

Variables

Independent Variable: Meaningfulness of stimulus – response connection.

Dependent Variable: Number of response words correctly recalled.

Controls / Precautions

1. Time of exposure is limited to 2 seconds per pair for both the lists
2. The difficulty level of words used is held constant in both the series
3. The time to respond to each stimulus is limited to 3 seconds

Materials

1. Two lists of paired-associate, each pair written on a card. The stimulus word for
each pair is also written on the back of the corresponding card
a. List A-10 pairs of words with no specific meaningful relationship
b. List B-10 pairs of words with logical or meaningful connections between
stimuli and responses
2. Stop clock
Procedure

The subject is seated comfortably and rapport is established and the following subject
details are recorded: Name (Initials), Age, Sex and Education.

Series 1: Instruct the subject to observe careful, the exposed stimulus response pairs.
Clarified to him/her that in each pair the first word is the stimulus and the second word is the
response (an example maybe given using a pair other than the ones in the two lists). Inform the
subject that recall will be tested for the response words paired with each stimulus. With these
instructions, present the first pair, from List A for two seconds then the second and so on till all
the 10 pairs in List A are exposed. Expose the stimulus words printed on the back of the cards
one by one at random and obtain responses. Note down the responses given by the subject.
Allow three seconds for the subject to response to each stimulus word.

Give a five minute rest period to avoid interference before starting the second series.

Series 2: Follow the same procedure as in the first series using List B

Instructions to subject

1. “With the signal ‘ready’ I will expose a series of cards with pairs of words, in which the
first word is the stimulus and the second word is the response, observe carefully as you
have to recall the response words later”.
2. “Now I will present only the stimulus words, you write down the corresponding response
words”.

Analysis

1. Account the number of response words correctly recalled in each list

2. Find out the difference in the number of words correctly recalled in each series
3. Calculate group mean
Introspection Report

The subject reported that the meaningful relationships between the words in List B
proved to be helpful in terms of making associations between and them and also recall. It was
also reported the in List A recall happened due to imagination of certain visual series of events
related to the words given or by forming certain unique associations between them.

Results and Discussions

The aim of the experiment was to study the effect of meaningfulness of stimulus-
response relationship on the foundation of association. It was hypothesized that stimulus
response meaningfulness has a positive effect on the formation of associations and consequently
on recall. The experiment is based on the method of Paired Associate Learning where the larger
the association value or meaningfulness of verbal units, the faster and easier the learning.
Meaningfulness is influenced by how well integrated the items are and thus are immediately
available for relevant associative learning.

Table 1. Showing the number of response words correctly recalled in each list by the subject

Number of response words correctly recalled

Name List A List B Difference (B-A)
M.S.B 5 9 4

The experiment was conducted on subject M.S.B, 20 years old female undergraduate
student and the results are shown in Table. 1. On List A where there is no specific meaningful
relationship between stimuli and responses, the subject recalled 5 words correctly. On List B
where there are logical meaningful relationships between stimuli and responses, the subject
recalled 9 words correctly. The difference between the two lists (B-A) is 4 indicating an increase
in the number of words recalled. Thus the subject’s results confirm the hypothesis.
 Table 2. Showing the number of response words correctly recalled in each list by the group

Number of response words correctly recalled

List A List B Difference (B-A)
S. NO
S.G 9 10 1
V.S 7 10 3
A.K 5 10 5
S.K 2 10 8
H.G 6 10 4
S.S.S 3 9 6
H.K 7 10 3
A.A 9 10 1
M.J 7 10 3
S.P 4 9 5
P.K 10 10 0
A.R 4 9 5
M.S.B 5 9 4
S.S 10 10 0
TOTAL 88 136 48
MEAN 6.3 9.7 13.4

The experiment was conducted on a group of 14 undergraduate students, 3 males and 11

females ranging from age 19- 21 years and the results are shown in Table. 2. On list A the group
has obtained a mean of 6.3 and on List B the corresponding mean is 9.7. The mean difference
between the two lists is 3.4 showing an increase in the number of words correctly recalled in List
B. Thus the results of the group confirm the hypothesis.

Individual differences are found in the group. Two subjects (S.S and P.K) showed no
difference in the number of words recalled between the two lists. This could be attributed to prior
associative techniques which had aided the recall.

The range of the difference in the group is 0-8, with subjects S.S and P.K on the lower
end of the range and subject S.K on the higher end of the range.

Conclusions
1. The subject M.S.B’s results confirmed with the hypothesis

2. The group’s results as a whole also confirmed the hypothesis

3. There are individual differences in the group

References

Feldman, R.S., (2011). Understanding Psychology. Delhi Tata-McGraw Hill.

Fowler, K. S., Saling, M. M., Conway, E.L., Semple, J.M., & Louis, W.J., (2002, January 11).
Paired associate performance in the early detection of DAT. Journal of the International
Neuropsychological Society, 8, 58-71.

Hulme, C., Goetz, K., Gooch, D., Adams, J., & Snowling, M.J., (2006, December 4). Paired-
associate learning, phoneme awareness, and learning to read. Journal of Experimental Child
Psychology, 96, 150-166.

Lechner, H.A., Squire, L.R., & Byrne, J. H. (1999). 100 Years of Consolidation-
Remembering Muller and Pilzecker. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press

Madigan, S., & O’Hara, R. (1992). Short- Term Memory at the Turn of the Century: Mary
Whiton Calkins’s Memory Research. American Psychologist, 47(2), 170- 174

McNerney, M. W., & Radvansky, G. A. (2015). Mind racing: The influence of exercise on long-
term memory consolidation. Memory, 23(8), 1140-1151.
Morgan, C.T., King, R.A., Weisz, J.R., & Schopler, J. (1993). Introduction to Psychology. Delhi.
Tata McGraw Hill Publishing.

Paired-Associate Learning - Concept Formation, Mary Whiton Calkins, and Stimulus - JRank
Articles http://psychology.jrank.org/pages/467/Paired-Associate-Learning.html#ixzz4BRiLj3yv
What is ASSOCIATION? Definition of ASSOCIATION (Psychology Dictionary).
(2016). Psychology Dictionary. Retrieved 14 June 2016, from
http://psychologydictionary.org/association/