Studies in Creativity: III. Effect of Overlearning on Recall and Usage of Information

When Ss are instructed to write creative stories, using as many words from a learned list of paired words as they can, they show striking differences. Some tend to keep the pairs intact, others tend to fragment them, and still others make up new groupings. The purpose of this experiment was to investigate the influence of the strength of associative bonds on word usage. The first story was written after 4 repetitions of the list of 12 pairs of words (presented in varied order) and a second story was written after 12 repetitions. The results showed no significant differences in the usage of the experimental words for the two stories, although the memory tests revealed difference in the degree of learning. Furthermore, it was found that the measures of word usage did not differ significantly from a pilot study (Maier, Julius, & Thurber, 1967) in which both stories were written after 12 repetitions of the list of paired words. The concepts of associative bonds, reinforcement, and overlearning derived from le...