Retention as a function of transfer paradign and introversion-extroversion

In an effort to investigate the effects of personality on paired-associate learning, sixty students from the Univer­ sity of Richmond were separated into three groups of extro­ vert, control, and introvert, on the basis of the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI). Five Ss from each group were randomly assigned to four paired-associate learning conditions (A-Br, A-C, C-B, C-D) and required to learn an A-B and a second paired-associate learning list to a criterion of one perfect score. Subjects were required to return to the lab after 24 hours for a retention test of both the second list and the original A-B list. Results of the experiment were exactly opposite of expectation, i.e., introverts rather than extroverts learned the A-B list in fewest number of trials to criterion, no significant difference between the personality groups and learning conditions was found, no significant difference between introverts and extroverts on the retention of the second and the original A-B list was observed. An explanation of the lack of significance was offered in terms of the small n (5) per cell, the learning habits of the Ss, the selection of the stimulus and response items, and the use of the paired-associate task for showing personality differences in learning