This research contrasts the learning effects of an affective dimension of meaningfulness with the word-quality of consonant-vowel-consonant trigrams. Subject rated trigrams for both "association value"--having word-quality versus lacking word-quality--and "reinforcement value"--liking versus disliking the trigram regardless of word quality. Paired associates lists were then constructed in which association value and reinforcement value were counterbalanced. Subjects learned two different lists. Experiment I established that the order of positive transfer across lists (best to poorest improvement) was as follows: dislike to liked, like to liked, disliked to disliked, and liked to disliked. Association value meaningfulness failed to produce interlist effects. Experiment II found that the left-hand member of a paired-associate contributed more to nonspecific transfer than the right-hand member. Experiment III found that the learning style of whites is relatively more along an association value than a response value dimension, whereas blacks reflected the opposite tendency. It was concluded that (1) affective factors play a greater role than hitherto acknowledged in theories of human verbal learning and (2) blacks may be socio-culturally different in style of learning than whites, thereby contributing to much of the confusion regarding relative capacity between races. (Author/JM)