An optimal strategy for the presentation of paired-associate items
Robert E. Dear, Harry F. Silberman, Donald P. Estavan, R. C. Atkinson · Systems Research and Behavioral Science · 1967
This study was concerned with the implementation of certain mathematical results that give optimal ways to present stimulus items in learning experiments. This optimization theory is based on a stimulus-sampling model of a learning experiment. We assumed that this particular model of learning would describe paired-associate learning and then compared the effects of training subjects in several paired-associate experiments by the optimal strategy and by another simple presentation strategy. Our empirical results did not support the adequacy of the assumed model of learning for representing the learning processes in these experiments. In particular, it appears that suitable models of these learning situations must incorporate some mode of representation of short-term retention.