Abstract
Learning and retention of verbal materials were compared in high school students under perform (guessing with feedback) or observe (watching the performer) conditions. The correct response was randomly determined, or the shortest word, or the word that made a short message when linked to contiguous correct words. In acquisition, subjects did better when performing, females did better than males, and the shortest word group did better than the other groups. There was a variety of interactions in the retention tests, for example, that between scoring (observing subjects either scored their paired performers’ responses as right or wrong or simply observed their paired performers) and trials. A transitory inhibitory effect could be attributed to the scoring operation, thus partially confirming a result reported earlier.
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This work was supported in part by a Research Career Award from the National Institute of Mental Health and a grant from the Army Research Institute for Behavioral and Social Sciences, both to the first author. The opinions herein are those of the authors alone and do not indicate endorsement by the U.S. Army. We thank Martha Dunham, psychology teacher at Hickman High School, Columbia, Missouri, for her cooperation in providing participants for this research, which was conducted in accordance with university regulations concerning rights of participants. We also thank Maureen Findley, Paula Anderson, and Michael Courtois for assistance in analysis of the data.
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Marx, M.H., Homer, A.L. & Marx, K. Verbal discrimination learning and retention as a function of task and performance or observation. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 15, 167–170 (1980). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03334498
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03334498