Learning and Processes of Associative Mediation

In the attempt to evaluate product and process views of associative mediation, 80 male and female university students learned paired-associate lists under one of several instructional sets. Those with mediation instructions wrote down associative mediators on cards-with (Intentional) or without (Incidental) instructions to learn the pairs--as pairs were projected onto a daylight screen. Others learned with Standard or Repetition instructions. Incidental mediation instructions were at least equal to Intentional mediation instructions in percent recall and were superior in number of associative mediators produced for normatively linked pairs (p < .05). Production of a mediator was significantly predictive of later recall (p < .001), but mediational instructions may have improved recall even when a rote strategy or no effective strategy was reported. Thus neither the product nor the process view could be rejected; it appeared possible that both types of factor were operating.