Age, rate and instructional conditions: empirical support against the pacing variable.

The present study was an attempt to determine if the pacing effect was an artifact of the confounding of presentation rate and total learning time. Two presentation rates were factorially varied with three instructional conditions for two different age groups in a paired-associate and free-recall task. The results of the study replicated the pacing effect when learning time was deliberately confounded. When total learning time was equated for the presentation rates the pacing effect was not replicated, demonstrating that pacing is an artifact. It was suggested that the total time principle, not pacing, was the viable explanatory concept. The results of the manipulation of instructional conditions suggest that it is inappropriate to assume that a set of instructions will result in equivalent performance for both young and old samples.