AMOUNT AND LOCUS OF STIMULUS-RESPONSE OVERLAP IN PAIRED-ASSOCIATE ACQUISITION

Each of 140 undergraduates acquired a single list of 3-letter-word paired associates. Stimuli shared 0, 1st, middle, last, 1st-and-middle, 1st-and-last, or middle-and-last letters with their responses. On the basis of data suggesting that some ordinal positions within the word sequence are more critical determinants of word processing than others, differential acquisition rates for these conditions were predicted. 2 alternative explanations of the findings were discussed, 1 assuming that the informational structure of the language has sensitized speakers of the language to attend to high-information parts of words, and 1 assuming that words are processed as serial sequences. (21 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.