Psych/550
November 4, 2013
Dr. Samantha Hickman
University of Phoenix
Verbal Learning Paper Many people often wonder what verbal learning is. To some people verbal learning can simply mean learning verbally with a person’s mouth. However, verbal learning does not only mean learning with a person’s mouth, and individual can learn verbally in different ways. Verbal is consisting of words that spoken rather than written. Some people will have to learn when things have been written done instead of spoken. There are people who will understand what is being taught to them when things are written rather than spoken because they will have a clear picture on what they are learning. “Verbal learning is usually identified with the learning or memorization of lists of words. It is concerned with the acquisition and retention of such items in an effort to describe the basic laws of learning” (Terry, 2009, p. 157). In this paper the concept of verbal learning will be described. The comparison and contrast of serial learning, paired associated learning, and free call will be discussed. Finally, the concept of mnemonics is the recall of verbal stimuli will be explored.
Concept of Learning Verbal learning is important in today’s society. Verbal learning helps with memorization of learning different tasks and lists of words. As individuals become older, he or she will continue to learn throughout life. “Early verbal learning researchers studied the effects of such variables as the number of repetitions, the spacing of the repetitions, or the transfer of learning from one list to another” (Terry, 2009, p. 157). For example, when a person is in elementary school, he or she has a spelling test coming up on a Friday. There are many tasks that he or she will do to prepare for the test. One of the tasks that the student will do is write each word five times each to start the memorizing the