Experimenter-made versus subject-made mnemonics in paired-associate learning

Two groups of Ss learned 42 pairs of words as a standard paired-associates learning task. One group was provided with mnemonic devices as an aid in learning the pairs and the other group was told to make up their own mnemonic aids. The difference in the number of pairs learned was not significant. Correlation between recall scores and Scholastic Aptitude Test verbal scores approached 0. There was a high correlation between the number of Ss who recalled a given pair correctly in the two groups. This suggests that certain pairs of words are easier to learn than others, regardless of whether S is given a mnemonic aid or has to contrive his own.