WITH THE INTENTION OF APPLYING A MATHEMATICAL THEORY OF LEARNING TO SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION, A TWO-PART EXPERIMENT USING TWO SETS OF 20 STUDENTS WAS CONDUCTED AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY. IN EXPERIMENT I THE SS (SUBJECTS) WERE ASKED TO DISTINGUISH DIFFERENCE OR SAMENESS IN PAIRS OF INITIAL RUSSIAN SYLLABLES. THESE 144 SYLLABLES WERE GROUPED INTO…

RESEARCH IS REPORTED HERE CONCERNING THE ASSUMPTION THAT ITEMS IN A LIST MUTUALLY AFFECT EACH OTHER IN VERBAL LIST-LEARNING. THE AUTHOR CONSIDERS BOTH THE MODE OF THE DATA ANALYSIS AND THE METHOD OF S-R (STIMULUS RESPONSE) PRESENTATION FOR A NUMBER OF RESTRICTED THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS INVOLVING ITEM INTERACTIONS IN S-R LIST-LEARNING EXPERIMENTS.…

The problem of structuring sequences of instructional stimuli such that learning is optimized is modelled as a sequential decision problem with an imbedded mathematical model of learning providing a criterion function. Three types of optimization methods for such a representation are investigated for the specific case of paired-associate learning…

Two mathematical models of paired-associate learning were used to develop optimal strategies for presenting spelling words to 42 elementary school children. The study was conducted within a computer-based drill-and-practice project. For the study two computer programs were developed. One program presented and corrected the lists of words. The…