Associative Inhibition: An Encoding Task Measuring Associative Interference (Proactive Type) during Learning

Summary.-Two forms of a novel paper-and-pencil encoding task were developed to measure proactive inhibition during learning when given to children and adolescents. The 2 forms of the encoding task were administered individually to 63 students referred for psychological services throughout a school district from a midwestern city. Results indicated that proactive inhibitory processes were present throughout learning and suggested that this encoding task could substitute, in special cases, for the classical verbal presenration of paired-associate materials that typically require individual administration. An attempt was made to make associative learning an intentional and integral component of a paper-and-pencil encoding task that could be easily and efficiently administered to individuals or large groups of Ss. Such a task, if developed, could substitute in special cases for the often tedious paired-associate technique typically requiring individual administration and a great deal of consideration on the part of the investigator as to the list construction, administration, and reliability. METHOD The combination of letters selected for this encoding task were chosen so that the total sum value of each of two paired-associate lists would approximate that of the other in terms of meaningfulness (m) , as described by Schulz and Underwood ( 1960). Stimulusresponse members were selected from tables presented by Schulz and Underwood for paired combinations of letters and so selected to produce two lists of word combinations with similar total sum value for m. Two experimental encoding tasks were developed utilizing these two lists of similarly scaled stimulus-response members. Each list was incorporated into one form of an encoding task (cf. Fig. 1). One task consists of the paired-members of List X and heretofore referred to as Form X of the encoding task. The Y list was incorporated into Form