LINGUISTIC UNITY LIST LENGTH AND RATE OF PRESENTATION IN SERIAL ANTICIPATION LEARNING

Two studies are reported. The first concerned the relationship between list length and linguistic structure in serial anticipation learning. Four levels of list length (22, 34, 35, and 48 words) and four levels of linguistic structure (paragraph, natural sentence, anomalous sentence, and isolated word) were investigated in a factorial design. Hypotheses concerning (a) the interaction between list length and linguistic structure in affecting total errors, (b) specific variations in the shape of the serial-position error curve as a function of linguistic structure, and (c) S's tendency to optimize linguistic unity, were supported by these results. The second study attempted to demonstrate, through a microgenetic procedure, that the levels of linguistic unity, manipulated as independent variables in the first study, corresponded to a set of psychological processes which emerge in a sequential fashion during the learning of these materials. These results, in part, supported this hypothesis. © 1969 Academic Press Inc. All rights reserved.