Effects of configuration on the paired-associate learning of blissymbols by preschool children with normal cognitive abilities

Translucency appears to be a potent variable in the learning of Blissymbols by preschool children with normal cognitive abilities. Complexity does not appear to influence learning for these individuals when there is a concurrent condition of high translucency. However, a condition of high complexity seems to enhance the learnability of Blissymbols having low translucency. For the present experiment, an attempt was made to determine if symbol configuration affects the learning of highly complex Blissymbols that bear little relationship to their referents. A paired-associate learning paradigm was used to present 30 Blissymbols to 20 cognitively normal preschool children. These symbols were evenly divided into superimposed and nonsuperimposed groups. Results indicated that the children learned more superimposed symbols than their nonsuperimposed counterparts. The implications of this finding for the teaching of Blissymbols are discussed.