Paired Associate Learning Experiment - Case Study Example

Running head: Paired Associate Learning Experiment Introduction Psychologists from different theoretical perspectives have taken an interest in the way human being acquire new information. There are two major perspectives, which have been used by psychologists in the study of human learning and memory. These are behaviorism and cognitive psychology (Murdock, 1961). Behaviorists posit that there is no need to refer to knowledge or any other concepts like “attention, perception, memory, or “thought” to understand the behaviour (Murdock, 1961).

This way, they focus on the observable behaviors instead of mental activity. Cognitive psychologists, on the other hand, seek to understand the inner mental activity and thought (Murdock, 1961). Cognitive psychologists use models and theories of memory, although these processes are not observable. Therefore, while cognitivists seek to understand the mind, behaviorists believe that it is not necessary to refer to the unseen mind to explain human learning behavior. In this paper, paired associate learning experiment is going to be tested through a study.

In paired associate learning, there are two separate mental processes: learning the response and formation of the bond between the two words (Bower, 1962). It involves pairing two items, usually words, which act as stimulus and a response. In this case, immediately the learner is prompted with the stimulus words, he or she responds with the appropriate word. For example, when human beings learn a new word, it must be paired with a concept it represents. The study will experiment this by use of words which corresponds to appropriate items and the response will be recorded.

In this research study, a list will be considered memorized when the subject will be able to respond to any stimulus from the list with its associated response. The purpose of the study will be to check how males and females respond to the experimental condition. Method and Procedure In this study, qualitative approach will be used to collect and draw the final conclusion. The subjects under study will be subjected to the test and their responses will be quantified. Afterwards, these responses will be analyzed quantitatively and then the results drawn qualitatively.

In carrying out this study, 16 subjects will be used. The subjects will be sorted by gender so that 8 of them will be male and the rest females. Before the commencement of the study, the subjects will be issued with a consent form which they must sign before being allowed to participate. The researcher will introduce them to the kind of study they are to be involved in, and assure them of confidentiality and their right to chose to participate or not. This will ensure only those subjects who are wiling take part and those who have committed to the consent are involved.

In this study, a list of 12 words and their corresponding items will be used as instruments. The words and the items will be made in a way that does not lead to the answer by ensuring that the items and their corresponding words are not common items to the subjects. When all is ready, all the subjects will be introduced to the items and their corresponding words. Later, the subjects will be introduced to the words, and they will be required to recall the corresponding item. Their responses will be recorded together with the number of times the presentation of pairs is done for a subject group to recall.

This experiment will be repeated after some short lapse of time, and it will determine the group of participants who will be able to remember without being re-introduced to the list of corresponding words and items. In this case, the depended variable will be the number of trials each group will be presented to learn the list. Their ability to learn will be the independent variable in this case. A Research Design is a blueprint which gives an outline of how the research is going to be conducted with an aim of generating answers to the research problem (Bower, 1962).

In this study, a between subject design is going to be used whereby the subjects are classified based on gender. Since the aim is to check the differences in the way male and female respond to the experimental conditions, this design will lead clearly to the answer to this question. Finally, the results will be recorded in each pair’s table and then a comparative analysis will be done. From the number of correct responses from each group and the number of times each group is shown the paired items to be able to master their correct correspondence, the correct answer will be drawn.

The conclusion will be used to put forward a hypothesis which can be proved or disapproved by other studies. The study will, therefore, have two possible outcomes; either the males responding better than females to the experimental condition, or females responding better than males to the experimental conditions. References Bower, G. H. (1962). An association model for response and training variables in paired associate learning, Psychol. Rev., 69, 34-35. Murdock, B. B. (1961). Short-Term Retention of Single Paired-Associates. Psychol. Rep.

8, 307-320.