Psychology ETDs

Boyd C. Tatum

Publication Date

4-5-1972

Abstract

Three experiments were performed in order to investigate the role that imagery plays in association formation and stimulus recognition. It was hypothesized that response terms of high imagery (I) value would produce enhanced recognition of the stimulus term over response terms of Low I value in a paired-associate (PA) task. Experiment I tested this hypothesis using High-I and Low-I response terms which bore a conceptual relationship to the stimulus terms. The stimuli were trigrams and the responses were nouns rated either High I or Low I. The Ss (undergraduate students) were trained under the study trial/test trial method and received two types of S-R pairs. The first type of S-R pairs were type C pairs, in which the response terms were consistently paired with the stimulus terms throughout training. The second type of S-R pairs were type R pairs, in which the response terms were repaired with the stimulus terms on each successive study trial. The results demonstrated that although response terms which bore a conceptual relationship to the stimulus produced a modest enhancement in the recognizability of the stimulus, this effect was not related to the rated I value of the response terms. Experiment II was designed to determine whether the enhanced stimulus recognition performance, resulting from response terms which bore a conceptual relationship to the stimulus terms in Experiment I, was related to the consistent pairing of the response to the stimulus (type C pairs). The procedure used in Experiment I was also used in Experiment II with two exceptions: (1) imagery of the response terms was not manipulated, and (2) the response terms for both the type C and type R pairs bore a conceptual relationship to the stimulus terms. The results of Experiment II indicated that consistently pairing a response with a stimulus is not a necessary condition for enhanced stimulus recognition. Experiment III was designed to determine the effects of response imagery on stimulus recognition performance when the response terms bore no conceptual relationship to the stimulus terms. The procedure employed in Experiment I was also used in Experiment III except that the response terms were not conceptually related to the stimulus terms. The results indicated that I value of the response term had no effect on the recognizability of the stimulus. The results of the three experiments were interpreted as consistent with the notion that response terms which bear a conceptual relationship to a stimulus may enhance recognition of the stimulus. Two explanations of why response imagery was an ineffective variable in the study were offered. The first explanation emphasized the meaningfulness value of the stimulus terms. The second explanation considered the possibility that the conditions of the experiments were not conducive to the utilization of the response terms as effective retrieval cues.

Degree Name

Psychology

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

Psychology

First Committee Member (Chair)

Henry Carleton Ellis

Second Committee Member

Peder Jack Johnson

Third Committee Member

Thomas Patrick Friden

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

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