| Abstract: | In two investigations, involving 50 male and 50 female college undergraduate subjects 18–24 years old, we compared differences in the learning of a highly interfering paired-associate discrimination task with and without the use of visual mediational cues. In computerized training, subjects were taught to discriminate between various International Morse Code symbols, given visually and/or aurally, and to respond with the appropriate paired letter of the alphabet. When presented with visual stimuli during a test situation, those subjects taught to use visual mediators significantly increased correct discriminations immediately, as well as 7 and 90 days after training. In addition, when given only aural stimuli during a test situation, those subjects previously trained with visual mediators recalled significantly more correct responses than those receiving training involving only aural or visual stimuli. Visual mediational instruction was shown to significantly reduce interference between the highly similar Morse Code symbols and to facilitate their association with the proper alphabet letter. Further research and applications of mediational instruction are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
