Abstract
Pictures and concrete nouns served as stimulus and response members of paired-associate (PA) lists, in a factorial design. PA learning was better with pictures than with nouns as stimuli, the effect being greater when nouns served as responses. No main effect was obtained on the response side, but an interaction indicated differential effects of response mode, depending on whether the stimuli were pictures or nouns. The results generally parallel those previously obtained with nouns varying in concreteness or imagery and further support the “conceptual peg” hypothesis.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Epstein, W., Rock, I., & Zuckerman, C. B. Meaning and familiarity in associative learning. Psychol. Monogr., 1960, 74, No. 4 (Whole No. 491).
Karwoski, T. F., Gramlich, F. W., & Arnott, P. Psychological studies in semantics: I. Free association reactions to words, drawings, and objects. J. soc. Psychol., 1944, 20, 233–247.
Paivio, A. Abstractness, imagery, and meaningfulness in paired-associate learning. J. verbal Learn. verbal Behav., 1965, 4, 32–38.
Paivio, A., & Olver, M. Denotative-generality, imagery, and meaningfulness in paired-associate learning of nouns. Psychon. Sci., 1964, 1, 183–184.
Paivio, A., Yuille, J., & Smythe, P. Stimulus and response abstractness, imagery, and meaningfulness, and reported mediators in paired-associate learning. Canad. J. Psychol., in press.
Wimer, C. C., & Lambert, W. E. The differential effects of word and object stimuli on the learning of paired associates. J. exp. Psychol., 1959, 57, 31–36.
Winer, B. J. Statistical principles in experimental design. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1962.
Yarmey, A. D., & Paivio, A. Further evidence on the effects of word abstractness and meaningfulness in paired-associate learning. Psychon. Sci., 1965, 2, 307–308.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This research was partially supported by grants to the first author from the National Research Council of Canada (Grant APA-87) and from the University of Western Ontario Research Fund. The assistance of Kaiman Csapo in gathering the data is gratefully acknowledged.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Paivio, A., Dan Yarmey, A. Pictures versus words as stimuli and responses in paired-associate learning. Psychon Sci 5, 235–236 (1966). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03328369
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03328369