Can the Superior Learnability of Meaningful and Pleasant Words Be Transferred to Nonsense Syllables?*

Abstract

The Ss in 2 experiments first learned a PA list of words as responses to nonsense syllables. In 1 condition the words differed in meaningfulness (M) and in the other condition the words differed in pleasantness (PL). Next, Ss learned a 2nd PA list of the same syllables as responses to numbers. High-M words were learned faster than low-M words, but did not transfer either this difference in learning or the difference in rated M to the syllables. Pleasant words were learned faster than indifferent words in one experiment (men’s) but not in the other (women’s). In neither experiment did the words transfer their difference in learning to the syllables, but in the men’s experiment they did transfer the difference in rated PL