Strategy Modification in Concept Learning as a Function of Intradimensional Variability

1973

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Lindahl, Maj‐Britt. Awareness, conditioning, and information processing in complex learning situations. Scand. J. Psychol., 1973, 14, 121–130.‐Learning without awareness was studied with a method involving three phases for each of 2. 10 subjects: (1) a problem solving phase, (2) a phase of applying the solution found in (1), and (3) a test phase. In (2) the solution was applied to the classification of 50 successively presented instances. These were in one condition sampled so that a perceptually easily discriminable basis of classification obtained that was different from and redundant to the one of the solution of phase (1). The results of the test phase showed that this redundant basis of classification influenced the performance of the subjects in this condition despite unawareness of it according to verbal reports. The phenomenon was interpreted as a case of learning without awareness, describable in conditioning terms, that influenced performance. The limitations of this type of learning were discussed, and its relationship to an aware information processing type of learning was outlined.

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 77%

Awareness, conditioning, and information processing in complex learning situations

1973

Self Cite

“…Previous results (Lindahl, 1968;1971) showed that subjects reported applying (1) some variant of the general principle, o r (2) weighing procedures developed on experiential o r intuitive basis (distance-and ribbon differences were for instance said to be weighed against each other in a way that was difficult to specify), or (3) some nongeneral principles. Subjects of category (1) were thought to solve the problem mainly deductively and were said to apply a deductive strategy.…”

Section: Previous Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Concept learning and the intradimensional spread of the relevant values of the instances I. Effects of intraclass variability

1974

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Abstract.— The effect on concept learning of the intra‐class variability of the relevant values of the instances was investigated. 20 subjects took part, and two ranges of the concerned intraclass variability, one about twice the other, were used. Depending upon the learning strategy used by the subjects the smaller intraclass variability was shown to have a limited facilitating effect on concept learning. Some facilitation thus occurred when strategies involved a rather unselective attention to the appearance characteristics of the instances but not when they involved selective focusing on these characteristics, or on elements of relevant knowledge established pre‐experimentally. The results were discussed in relation both to relevant S‐R‐conceptions and information processing models of concept learning. It was concluded that automatic generalization as described in S‐R‐theories might have to be integrated into the information processing models for some categories of learning.

Concept learning and the intradimensional spread of the relevant values of the instances II. Effects of extreme values and position of class border

1974

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Abstract.— Thirty subjects took part in a concept‐learning‐like experiment with instances. the values of which varied continuously intradimensionally, which in turn resulted in continuously varyicg intradimensional differences between instances belonging to different classes. The results were construed as supporting the hypothesis that with subjects attending selectively to specific before‐the‐eyes characteristics of the instances, one hypotheses testing routine may be described as follows: Step 1: The subjects select and test intradimensional differences for relevance in the order of their relative sizes, and Step 2: on finding some such differences presumably relevant proceed to hypothesize midpoints or other easily registerable points on the involved dimension as class borders. This routine was thought to integrate various lines of thought within concept learning dealing with the effects on learning of intradimensional value separation, “obviousness” and relative frequencies of relevant attributes. It was also thought to represent a memory structure, and its relevance to some reasonings within memory research was pointed out.