Type and amount of available past instances in concept learning

Effect of availability on the relationship of memory abilities to performance in multiple-category concept tasks.

“…In the present study, the task was a multiple-category problem in which the subjects were required to categorize the instances into one of four categories. In the cases where the effect of availability was considered in a four-category problem (Elaine et al, 1968;Pishkin, 1967;Pishkin & Wolfgang, 1965), the minimum level of availability has been one instance per category. This provided the subject with a total number of instances equal to the number of categories in the problem.…”

“…Several investigators have experimentally reduced the necessity of recalling past instances by making various numbers of previously presented instances available. Such availability has consistently been shown to facilitate performance in concept-learning tasks (Blaine, Dunham, & Pyle, 1968;Bourne, Goldstein, & Link, 1964;Pishkin, 1967;Pishkin & Wolfgang, 1965). This result has usually been interpreted as a reduction in the memory requirement of the task.…”

The Interaction of Associative Memory and General Reasoning with Availability and Complexity of Examples in a Computer-Assisted Instruction Task

“…In both of these studies the regression of number of examples on Ma factor scores produced a negative slope, indicating greater learning efficiency for high Ma Ss than for low Ma Ss. Previous studieb (Blaine, Dunham, & Pyle, 1968) indicated that Memory load in a concept attainment task could be reduced by having past instances available. It was reasoned, therefore, that the removal of previous instance availability in revising the task may have had a similar effect.…”