Individual differences in learning speed
Abstract
Tested the hypothesis that individual differences in learning speed are determined by the types of elaborative strategies used by learners during acquisition. Exp I, with 52 undergraduates, showed that fast learners were able to generate quickly large numbers of elaborators relative to slow learners. Moreover, fast learners' elaborators better reinstated the conditions of original learning on test trials and were more likely to be maintained throughout the course of acquisition. Exps II and III, with 138 Ss, demonstrated that previously collected elaborators, when provided for new Ss during study trials, influenced acquisition rates in a predictable manner: New Ss receiving elaborators of slow learners needed more trials to reach criterion compared with other Ss learning with mediators generated by fast learners. It was also shown that slow learners generally produced less effective elaborators than fast learners even when they were using the same elaborative strategy. Results are discussed within a general theory of paired-associate learning. (31 ref)