Intrusion of associative responses into schizophrenic conceptual performance.

One normal and one schizophrenic group, each consisting of 32 adult males, were required to sort cards bearing the name of a common object with 3 guide-card words—one sharing a concept with the sorting-card word, one with an associate connection to it, and one which was irrelevant. The schizophrenics were expected to make more associative errors than the normals. The results indicated that both difficulty in forming concepts and susceptibility to associative distraction are in part responsible for the fact that schizophrenics show more associative intrusions than do normals. 23 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Acquired equivalence and distinctiveness in human discrimination learning: Evidence for associative mediation.

In the first stage of Experiments 1-3, subjects learned to associate different geometrical figures with colors or with verbal labels. Performance in Stage 2, in which the figures signaled which of 2 motor responses should be performed, was superior in subjects required to make the same response to figures that had shared the same Stage 1 associate. A third stage of testing showed that the events used as associates in Stage 1 were capable of evoking the motor response trained in Stage 2, an outcome predicted by an associative interpretation of such transfer effects. Experiment 4 provided evidence that the relevant associations can be effective in controlling motor responding even when subjects report an antagonistic relationship between the events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Experimental studies of factors affecting word associations.

Experimental investigations of word-association tests (WATs) per se have been infrequent although the technique itself is widely used in other areas of research. Studies aimed at the determination of variables which affect the nature of responses on WATs are cited. Experimental evidence illustrating the role of associative as well as nonassociative factors is reported. It is concluded that although word associations are generally considered to reflect underlying verbal habits primarily, various nonassociative factors such as the set of S and details of administrative procedure may be stronger determinants of responses on a WAT. (35 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Minnesota conference on associative processes in verbal behavior.

The Committee on Linguistics and Psychology of the Social Science Research Council held a work conference at the University of Minnesota on April 25-26, 1955, "to facilitate communication among a small group of research workers who were interested in problems of verbal association." "The program consisted of seven discussion sessions and a summary session." Papers were presented by W. A. Russell, J. J. Jenkins, W. A. Bousfield, L. J. Postman, C. N. Cofer, D. H. Howes, S. Saporta. Titles of the papers are given and a summary statement concerning each is given. Similarities and differences, types of objectives emphasized, and methodological trends are discussed. "With reference to differences in conceptualization, the participants seemed to be divided with respect to practically all dimensions." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Verbal conditioning and generalization of prodemocratic responses.

"This investigation found that verbal reinforcement was effective in shifting subjects to a more democratic position on a combination of the California and Christie F Scales. Further, the change generalized to the E Scale under conditions in which the experimenter was present, even though he was no longer reinforcing the subject. The experimenter evidently has social influence value." From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4GD43S. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accuracy of brightness discrimination as measured by concurrent verbal responses and GSRs.

"In… subliminal perception experiments some response shows discriminative accuracy at stimulus values below the threshold of awareness determined by classical psychophysical techniques. The procedure is objectionable because the threshold measure admits extraneous variance that the measure of 'subliminal accuracy' does not… . This experiment compares the discriminative accuracy of GSR and verbal response when assessed by the same forced-choice psychophysical technique." Results indicated "the verbal response showed significantly higher correlation with the stimulus than did the GSR… neither response was significantly more accurate than the other." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early behaviorism and verbal mediating responses.

Largely overlooked are many "earlier behavioristic or stimulus-response analyses of increasingly complex behavioral phenomena in part by means of concepts and principles involving mediating responses and stimuli… primarily but not exclusively, verbal mediating responses and stimuli… . Meyer, Watson, Hunter, Dashiell, Kantor, and others clearly anticipated the essential features of many more recent analyses." Watson's ideas and those of his contemporaries are discussed. Hull is regarded as "the transition" between the earlier and more recent concepts concerning verbal mediating responses. From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2AD85G. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An information analysis of verbal and motor responses to symbolic and conventional Arabic numerals.

The responses of Ss to 2 sets of Arabic numerals—one conventional, the other drawn from an 8-line square matrix—were compared. 24 Ss pressed keys to indicate the numeral exposed; 24 Ss called out the numeral. With the verbal responses group, the conventional numerals were consistently superior to the symbolic numerals. With the motor response group, no difference between the numeral sets was found. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mediation and associative facilitation in neurotic, psychotic, and normal subjects.

The present investigation is a replication of previous work (see 30: 555; 27: 4925) utilizing Veterans Administration medical and psychiatric patients instead of college Ss. The previous findings indicated that associative relationship facilitates verbal learning. Ss learned 2 sets of syllable-word paired associates; ? of the pairs on the 2nd list had response terms which were associates of their responses to words on the 1st list. Although the responses of all Ss showed the effects of associative facilitation, this was more true for nonpsychotics. The results are discussed in terms of understanding the thinking of schizophrenics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of a subliminal food stimulus on verbal responses.

To what extent can subliminal stimulation be used to influence human behavior? This study involving 105 college freshmen attempts to isolate and study a few of the possible variables. "The experimental group saw a classroom movie with the word 'beef' superimposed in flashes of –1??? of a second every seven seconds; the control group just saw the movie. It was found that, compared to the control Ss, the experimental Ss (a) did not show increased verbal references to the stimulus word; (b) did not choose the stimulus object in a multiple choice situation (though sex differences were significant); but (c) did rate themselves significantly more hungry. It was also found that hours of food deprivation did not influence any of these relationships. 15 refs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differential age effects for implicit and explicit conceptual associative memory.

Older adults show disproportionate declines in explicit memory for associative relative to item information. However, the source of these declines is still uncertain. One explanation is a generalized impairment in the processing of associative information. A second explanation is a more specialized impairment in the strategic, effortful recollection of associative information, leaving less effortful forms of associative retrieval preserved. Assessing implicit memory of new associations is a way to distinguish between these viewpoints. To date, mixed findings have emerged from studies of associative priming in aging. One factor that may account for the variability is whether the manipulations inadvertently involve strategic, explicit processes. In two experiments we present a novel paradigm of conceptual associative priming in which subjects make speeded associative judgments about unrelated objects. Using a size classification task, Experiment 1 showed equivalent associative priming between young and older adults. Experiment 2 generalized the results of Experiment 1 to an inside/outside classification task, while replicating the typical age-related impairment in associative but not item recognition. Taken together, the findings support the viewpoint that older adults can incidentally encode and retrieve new meaningful associations despite difficulty with the intentional recollection of the same information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Associative symmetry versus independent associations in the memory for object-location associations.

The formation of associations between objects and locations is a vital aspect of episodic memory. More specifically, remembering the location where one experienced an object and, vice versa, the object one encountered at a specific location are both important elements for the memory of an event. Whether episodic associations are holistic representations of individual components or whether there are unidirectional, separately modifiable connections between them has been investigated nearly exclusively using verbal stimuli. A preliminary conclusion concerning this controversy is that verbal associations are, at least, highly correlated (M. J. Kahana, 2002). This theoretical debate, which in the past has undergone a major empirical effort, is still of relevance for the concurrent global matching models of associative memory (S. E. Clark & S. D. Gronlund, 1996). The authors used variations of a novel object-location learning paradigm to complement the accumulated evidence regarding the nature of episodic associations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Incubation of creative performance and specific associative priming.

In the context of an associative theory of creativity, the effect of specific associative priming upon incubation of creative performance was studied. 2 experiments were conducted. In Experiment I, using 30 Ss, it was demonstrated that performance on a remote-associate task was enhanced by specific priming. In a 2nd study, using the same method and materials, high scores (HC) and low scorers (LC) on the Remote Associate Test (a measure of creative potential) were compared in a 2 X 2 X 3 factorial design also included 2 levels of priming (some and none) and 3 time relationships (immediate, pre-24 hr. and post-24 hr.) HC Ss performed significantly better than LC Ss, and the effect of specific priming was significantly greater than no priming. The time relationship had no effect. These data lend support to an associative interpretation of the phenomenon of incubation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of similarity in human associative learning.

In 2 experiments, humans received sequences of patterns that were similar (AX→BX, AY→BY, AZ→BZ) or dissimilar (CX→DY, CY→DZ, CZ→DX). The patterns were portrayed as bugs that could be eliminated with 2 insecticide sprays (red or blue). Either spray eliminated bugs with Features A and C, and participants learned by trial and error to use one spray (e.g., red) to eliminate bugs with Feature B and the other spray (e.g., blue) to eliminate those with Feature D. In Experiment 1, participants' spray choice for bugs with Feature A came to match that used to eliminate bugs with Feature B, but there was no such associative transfer between Features C and D. That is, similarity promoted associative transfer of responding between paired patterns when the features used to manipulate similarity (i.e., X, Y, and Z) were irrelevant. In Experiment 2, in which X, Y, and Z were relevant to the solution of configural discrimination, similarity hindered such associative transfer. These results complement those found in pigeons (R. A. Rescorla & D. J. Gillan, 1980) and indicate that similarity should not be accorded independent status as a principle of associative learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attentional and error-correcting associative mechanisms in classical conditioning.

R. A. Rescorla (2000, Rescorla, 2001, Rescorla, 2002) reported that the associative changes undergone by 2 conditioned stimuli that are reinforced or not reinforced in compound depend on their initial associations. The results contradict the predictions of simple error-correction models but can be explained by models that incorporate a “constrained” error-correction rule. A model of classical conditioning presented by N. A. Schmajuk, Y. Lam, and J. A. Gray (1996) suggests that attentional mechanisms, acting during both compound training and testing, have an important role in producing those results. Moreover, the model suggests that those attentional mechanisms might obscure the evaluation of the associative changes undergone by the conditioned stimuli during compound training. Two experiments that differentiate our model from competing theories are proposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Separating bias and sensitivity in judgments of associative memory.

Ratings of the degree of association between words are linearly related to normed associative strengths, but the intercept is high, and the slope is shallow (the judgments of associative memory [JAM] function). Two experiments included manipulations intended to decrease the intercept and increase the slope. Discrimination training on many pairs of words and constraining ratings to sum to a constant both reduced the intercept but failed to change the slope. The intercept of the JAM function appears to contain a bias component that can be manipulated independently of the slope, which reflects sensitivity to associative strengths. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of emotion on associative recognition: Valence and retention interval matter.

In two experiments, we examined the effects of emotional valence and arousal on associative binding. Participants studied negative, positive, and neutral word pairs, followed by an associative recognition test. In Experiment 1, with a short-delayed test, accuracy for intact pairs was equivalent across valences, whereas accuracy for rearranged pairs was lower for negative than for positive and neutral pairs. In Experiment 2, we tested participants after a one-week delay and found that accuracy was greater for intact negative than for intact neutral pairs, whereas rearranged pair accuracy was equivalent across valences. These results suggest that, although negative emotional valence impairs associative binding after a short delay, it may improve binding after a longer delay. The results also suggest that valence, as well as arousal, needs to be considered when examining the effects of emotion on associative memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

An attention-based associative account of adjacent and nonadjacent dependency learning.

In 5 experiments, results showed that when participants are faced with materials embedding relations between both adjacent and nonadjacent elements, they learn exclusively the type of relations they had to actively process in order to meet the task demands, irrespective of the spatial contiguity of the paired elements. These results are consonant with current theories positing that attention is a necessary condition for learning. More important, the results provide support for a more radical conception, in which the joint attentional processing of 2 events is also a sufficient condition for learning the relation between them. The well-documented effect of contiguity could be a by-product of the fact that attention generally focuses on contiguous events. This reappraisal considerably extends the scope of approaches based on associative or statistical processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Item and associative recognition with precuing and postcuing.

M. Duncan & B. B. Murdock (2000) compared precued and postcued item recognition and serial recall showing precued-postcued differences for item recognition but not for serial recall. Precuing and postcuing refer to 2 conditions in which the instructions as to the type of recall test following the presentation of short lists of items is given before or after the list presentation. This methodology was extended here to a paired-associate task. In 2 experiments, short lists of paired associates were presented followed by single-item, old-new, or intact-rearranged pair recognition tests; test type was precued or postcued. A fast or slow presentation rate was used to discourage or encourage mediators. TODAM2 (a theory of distributed associative memory) predicts that there should be little or no cuing differences regardless of whether subjects use mediators to remember the pairs. As predicted the recognition data were essentially identical for the precued and postcued conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conflict adaptation by means of associative learning.

Cognitive control is responsible for adapting information processing in order to carry out tasks more efficiently. Contrasting global versus local control accounts, it has recently been proposed that control operates in an associative fashion, that is, by binding stimulus–response associations after detection of conflict (Verguts & Notebaert, 2009). Here, this prediction is explicitly tested for the first time. In a task-switching study where both tasks use the same relevant information, we previously reported conflict adaptation over tasks (Notebaert & Verguts, 2008). In the current experiment, we demonstrate that this is restricted to conditions where both tasks use the same effectors, thereby supporting the associative control account. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)