Imagery Value and Unitization in Verb-Noun Pairs

• Published in: The American journal of psychology Vol. 92; no. 2; pp. 277 - 291
• Main Authors: Wicker, Frank W., Thorelli, Irene M., Weinstein, Claire E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Urbana, etc University of Illinois Press 01-06-1979; University of Illinois Press, etc
• Subjects: Experimental psychology; Experimentation; Memory; Nouns; Propriety; Statistical variance; Transitive verbs; Verbal learning; Verbs; Words
• ISSN: 0002-9556; 1939-8298
• DOI: 10.2307/1421924

Paired-associate learning and free recall of verb-noun pairs were related to rated appropriateness of word pairs, to rated imagery value of component words, and to rated imagery of the pair as a unit. Rated verb imagery or concreteness significantly predicted both types of retention in two studies. Pair imagery did not predict retention better than did component-word imagery, but integration indices and interactions of imagery value with learning task and with appropriateness ratings suggested that imagery effects were associated with a process of pair integration. In this, verb-imagery effects appear similar to noun-imagery and adjective-imagery effects, and it was suggested that the concept of pair unitization may help explain negative results for verb imagery in some previous studies. Rated appropriateness was inversely related to imagery value of both verbs and nouns. The results did not support a semantic-relatedness interpretation of concreteness effects in learning.