INDEPENDENCE OF VERBAL AND SPATIAL PAIRED-ASSOCIATE LEARNING

This study investigated the independence of verbal and nonverbal memor y processes in a nonclinical young adult sample using parallel procedu res designed to elicit verbal and spatial paired associate learning, r espectively. The data indicated that, in general, men performed better than women on the spatial learning task, although there was no differ ence on the verbal procedure. A hierarchical multiple regression analy sis indicated that a configural attention measure was the best predict or of spatial learning, while performance on the verbal learning task contributed very little. These data support the notion that performanc e on genuinely material-specific memory tasks is largely independent a nd provide evidence of independent cognitive-cerebral processes.