Paired Associates Learning
A continuous study–test task from the classic Atkinson–Shiffrin (1968) memory experiments. Study letter–number pairs, recall them after controlled delays, and see your own lag-decay curve plotted against the model’s theoretical predictions. Administered by a clinician or researcher through an assigned assessment link.
What this test is
Welcome. Paired Associates Learning comes from classic memory experiments. You study pairs of letters and numbers and recall them after different delays, which shows how quickly newly learned associations fade.
How would you like to use it?
For yourself
Take it yourself and see your results as soon as you finish, and you can retake it whenever you like.
For researchers
Sign up as an Implicitify researcher to use the full suite of measures in your studies, or pay for each test you give. Research pricing is still being set, so we will confirm it with you when you get in touch.
Become a researcherFor clinicians
Open a clinician account to send this measure to your clients or patients through a secure link and review their scored results in one place.
Create a clinician accountAlready have an account? Go to your clinician dashboard.For educators
Use our measures in your courses to show students how psychological assessment works and to teach the principles of testing.
Request course accessHow it works
Study
Letter–number pairs like QZ — 47 appear one at a time for two seconds each. Study and test events are interleaved, exactly like the original continuous paired-associate procedure.
Recall at controlled lags
Each pair is probed after a controlled number of intervening events — a lag of 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16. Short lags test the short-term store; long lags test what transferred to long-term storage.
Your curve vs. the model
Your per-lag accuracy is plotted against the Atkinson–Shiffrin theoretical curve, with the overall accuracy, the mean deviation from theory, and the lag-decay effect summarised in plain language.
Common questions
What does this test measure?
How recall accuracy falls as the interval between studying a pair and being tested on it grows. In the Atkinson–Shiffrin model, that decline reflects displacement from a limited short-term buffer and the amount of transfer into long-term storage.
What is the comparison curve?
The dashed reference line is the theoretical lag curve from Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968) — a published model prediction, not a population norm. No percentiles or standard scores are computed.
How seriously should I take one run?
Results reflect performance relative to Atkinson-Shiffrin (1968) theoretical predictions and should be interpreted directionally. This task uses a small trial count per lag condition; individual scores are subject to variability and should not be used in isolation for clinical conclusions.
How is the task administered?
Through the clinician and researcher portals: administration and scored reports go through an assigned assessment link, and there is no charge to the respondent. The sample report is available to clinician accounts.