The HED Task Catalog is under development. IDs are not stable until formal release. Comments are welcome at github.com/hed-standard/hed-task/issues.

Paired Associates Learning Task

HED task ID: hedtsk_paired_associates_learning

Family: Recall and recognition memory tests

Also known as: PAL, Paired Associate Learning, Paired Associates Learning

Study of cue-target pairs followed by cued recall; proportion recalled indexes associative encoding and retrieval.

Description

Participants learn arbitrary associations between stimuli and their locations (or between word pairs). In a typical computerized version (CANTAB PAL), abstract patterns appear in boxes around the screen during the study phase, and during test, patterns are presented centrally and participants must identify the correct box location. Difficulty increases across stages from 1-2 to 6-8 pairs. Performance is measured by patterns correctly learned and errors made. The PAL task is particularly sensitive to hippocampal function and shows early sensitivity to amyloid-beta pathology in preclinical Alzheimer’s disease.

Inclusion test

An experiment is an instance of this task when its procedure matches, it manipulates at least one of the listed variables, and it records at least one of the listed measures.

Procedure

Participants study pairs of items (word-word, face-name, object-location) and are later cued with one member to recall the other.

Manipulation

Pair relatedness (semantic, unrelated); number of pairs; study-test cycles; cue type.

Measurement

Cued recall accuracy; number of cycles to criterion; intrusion errors.

Variations

Named versions that change what the participant experiences or does. The identifier of a variation is hedvar_<task>__<variation>.

Variation

Description

Justification

Verbal Paired Associates (Cued Recall)

hedvar_paired_associates_learning__verbal_paired_associates_cued_recall

Word pairs; cue with first word, recall second.

Canonical word-word pairs with cued recall test

Face-Name Paired Associates

hedvar_paired_associates_learning__face_name_paired_associates

Naturalistic variant; sensitive to aging and early AD.

Face-name binding; social memory domain

Object-Location Pairs

hedvar_paired_associates_learning__object_location_pairs

Associate objects with spatial locations; engages hippocampal binding.

Object-location binding; spatial memory component

CANTAB PAL

hedvar_paired_associates_learning__cantab_pal

Computerized abstract pattern-location associations; graded difficulty.

Touchscreen object-location paradigm; named computerized instrument

Arbitrary vs. Semantically Related Pairs

hedvar_paired_associates_learning__arbitrary_vs_semantically_related_pairs

Unrelated pairs tax hippocampal binding; related pairs benefit from semantic support.

Relatedness manipulation changes encoding strategy

Cross-Modal Paired Associates

hedvar_paired_associates_learning__cross_modal_paired_associates

Pair across modalities (sound-image, word-location).

Pairs span sensory modalities; cross-modal binding demand

Multi-Trial Learning Curves

hedvar_paired_associates_learning__multi_trial_learning_curves

Repeated study-test cycles; tracks acquisition rate.

Repeated study-test cycles; tests learning rate over trials

Retroactive/Proactive Interference Variants

hedvar_paired_associates_learning__retroactive_proactive_interference_variants

Overlapping pairs (A-B, A-C) to study interference mechanisms.

Competing pairs introduced; tests interference in associative memory

Incidental vs. Intentional Encoding

hedvar_paired_associates_learning__incidental_vs_intentional_encoding

With or without awareness of upcoming test.

Encoding goal manipulation; tests depth and intentionality of encoding

Cognitive processes

This task is designed to engage the following processes:

Key references

  • de Rover, M., Pironti, V. A., McCabe, J. A., et al. (2011). Hippocampal dysfunction in patients with mild cognitive impairment: A functional neuroimaging study of a visuospatial paired associates learning task. Neuropsychologia, 49(7), 2060-2070. (DOI, PubMed)

Further references

  • Atkinson, A. L., Berry, E. D. J., Waterman, A. H., Baddeley, A. D., Hitch, G. J., & Allen, R. J. (2018). Are there multiple ways to direct attention in working memory? Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1424(1), 115–126. (DOI, PubMed)

  • Lim, S. J., Fiez, J. A., & Holt, L. L. (2014). How may the basal ganglia contribute to auditory categorization and speech perception? Frontiers in Neuroscience, 8, 230. (DOI, PubMed)

  • Parra, M. A., Abrahams, S., Logie, R. H., Méndez, L. G., Lopera, F., & Della Sala, S. (2010). Visual short-term memory binding deficits in familial Alzheimer’s disease. Brain, 133(9), 2702–2713. (DOI, PubMed)

  • Naveh-Benjamin, M. (2000). Adult age differences in memory performance: Tests of an associative deficit hypothesis. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 26(5), 1170–1187. [Updated: Old, S. R., & Naveh-Benjamin, M. (2008). Differential effects of age on item and associative measures of memory. Psychology and Aging, 23(1), 104–118.] (DOI, PubMed)