Roediger Henry L, Arnold Kathleen M
Department of Psychology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899, USA.
Am J Psychol. 2012 Summer;125(2):127-43. doi: 10.5406/amerjpsyc.125.2.0127.
In 1957 Irvin Rock published an article in the American Journal of Psychology igniting a controversy that dominated the field of verbal learning for the next 8 years before mostly burning out. Rock published 2 paired-associate learning experiments in which he compared performance of a control group that learned a constant list of pairs to the criterion of one perfect trial with an experimental group in which forgotten pairs on each trial were dropped and replaced on the next trial with new pairs. That is, on each trial for experimental subjects, pairs that were correctly recalled were maintained in the next trial, whereas pairs that were not recalled were dropped and replaced randomly with new pairs from a large pool. Surprisingly, Rock found that the 2 groups took the same number of trials to reach criterion. He concluded that learning occurred not with a gradual, incremental increase in strength of memory traces but rather in an all-or-none fashion. Rock's conclusions rocked the world of verbal learning, because all theories followed a gradualist assumption. However, Estes (1960) published research that led him to the same conclusion shortly thereafter. We recount these developments and discuss how the verbal learning establishment rose up to smite down these new ideas, with particular ferocity directed at Rock. Echoing G.A. Miller (1963), we conclude with a note of sympathy for Rock's and Estes's positions and muse about why their work was so summarily dismissed. The important question they raised--the nature of how associations are learned--remains unanswered.
1957年，欧文·洛克在美国《心理学杂志》上发表了一篇文章，引发了一场争议，这场争议在接下来的8年里主导了言语学习领域，之后才基本平息。洛克发表了两项配对联想学习实验，他将学习一组固定配对并达到一次完美试验标准的对照组的表现，与实验组的表现进行了比较。在实验组中，每次试验中遗忘的配对会被剔除，并在下次试验中用新的配对取代。也就是说，对于实验对象的每次试验，正确回忆的配对会保留到下一次试验，而未被回忆起的配对则会被剔除，并从大量配对中随机用新的配对取代。令人惊讶的是，洛克发现两组达到标准所需的试验次数相同。他得出结论，学习并非随着记忆痕迹强度的逐渐增加而发生，而是以全或无的方式进行。洛克的结论震动了言语学习界，因为所有理论都遵循渐进主义假设。然而，埃斯蒂斯（1960年）随后不久发表的研究也得出了相同的结论。我们叙述了这些进展，并讨论了言语学习界是如何奋起抨击这些新观点的，尤其是对洛克的抨击尤为激烈。效仿G.A.米勒（1963年），我们最后对洛克和埃斯蒂斯的立场表示同情，并思考为什么他们的工作被如此轻易地否定。他们提出的重要问题——联想是如何学习的本质——仍然没有答案。
