Explain the procedures for studying verbal learning.

Question

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The following are the procedures for studying verbal learning:

(i) Paired Associates Learning

This method is used to learn foreign languages. A list of paired-associates is prepared and the first word is used as a stimulus, while the second word is used as a response.
Members of each pair may be from the same language or two different languages.
The learner is first shown both the stimulus-response pairs and instructed to remember and recall the response after the presentation of each stimulus term.
This continues until the participant remembers all the response words without any error.
The total number of trials taken to reach the criterion becomes the measure of paired associates learning.

(ii) Serial Learning

This method is used to find out the ways through which participants learn the lists of verbal items and the processes involved in it.
The participant is presented with a list of nonsense syllables, most familiar or least familiar words and interrelated words. Then, he/she is required to produce the items in the same serial order.
During the first trial, the participant is shown the first item after which he/she has to produce the second item. If the participant fails to do that then the second item is presented and the participant has to produce the third.
The learning trials continue until the participant remembers all the items in the given order.

(iii) Free Recall

The participants in this method are presented with a list of words to read and speak out. After this, they are required to remember the words in any order.
This method is used to study the kind of organisation of words made by the participants in order to store them in memory.