| Abstract: | Transfer from one serial list to another was analyzed in terms of the degree of correspondence of interlist positional associations. This analysis implies that transfer of serial learning is inversely related to the number of positions that the items are displaced in the transfer list relative to their 1st-list locations. 3 experiments were conducted with a total of 168 undergraduates and 120 4th and 5th graders. 2 of these studies involved a serial-serial transfer design, while a serial-spatial discrimination transfer paradigm was used in the 3rd. Results of each study are consistent with the generalization that transfer of serial learning decreases as the degree of positional remoteness of the items, from one task to the next, is increased. These results and those of recent studies concerning H. Ebbinghaus's (1913) derived-list paradigm are readily interpretable in terms of a "positional" version of the concept of remote associations. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
