Discrimination learning of pictures and words

Abstract

A verbal discrimination (VD) study-test procedure was used to compare discrimination learning of 14 pairs of pictures, concrete nouns, and abstract nouns. Pictures were significantly easier to discriminate than concrete nouns, which in turn produced significantly fewer errors than abstract noun pairs. The results were attributed to the relative image-arousing capacity of the three types of items, and implications for the frequency theory of VD learning were discussed. © 1971, Psychonomic Journals, Inc.. All rights reserved.