The effect of delayed auditory feedback on the acquisition and retention of easy and difficult paired-associate trigrams
Date
1975
Authors
Lautman, Claude Jay
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Abstract
This study investigated the effects of delayed auditory feedback (DAF) on the acquisition and 24 hour retention of paired associate CVC trigrams. Four pilot studies were carried out to determine optimum procedure and materials.
Experiment 1 employed a 2 x 2, between-groups factorial design. There were two auditory feedback conditions - DAF and normal auditory feedback (NAF), and two difficulty conditions - lists of eight eve pairs differing in meaningfulness (m'). The lists were labelled easy (E) and difficult (D) on the basis of their average m' values. Subjects were tested using a constant trials anticipation procedure. List E subjects had significantly greater acquisition scores than List D subjects. Type of feedback did not affect acquisition scores. No interaction was observed between feedback condition and list difficulty. It was not possible to determine the average criterion trial of D list groups. Calculation of the average E list criterion trial was possible, and indicated that OAF did not affect the acquisition rate of this list.
Experiment 2 investigated the effect of DAF on the retention of the E list. The procedure was the same as that employed in Experiment 1. However, original learning for the two groups in this study was equated on the basis of the average criterion trial of their counterpart groups in Experiment 1. Subjects returned after 24 hours for a one trial retention test under NAF conditions. No difference in retention scores of the DAF and NAF groups was observed.
The discussion focussed on procedural limitations, and suggested improvement of the procedures used in this study to better explore the effects of DAF on the acquisition and retention of printed, verbal material.