Concept learning as a function of the conceptual rule and the availability of positive and negative instances.

Abstract

One hundred and sixty Ss, assigned randomly to cells of a 4 (conceptual rule: conjunctive, disjunctive, conditional, and biconditional) X 4 (memory condition: feedback retained for all instances, for positive instances only, for negative instances only, for none of the instances) factorial design, solved an attribute identification problem via the selection paradigm. Rules differed in difficulty and the display of feedback for previously selected instances facilitated performance. The relative effectiveness of retained instances differed, however, with the rule; e.g., positives were more informative in conjunctive and negatives in conditional concepts. There were differences in the stimulus selection patterns of better and poorer 5"s, which also interacted with rule and memory condition.

Negative instances and mathematical concept acquisition

“…Recent research suggests that there is an interaction between usefulness of negative instances and the nature of the conceptual rule (Bourne and Ekstrand, 1969;Fraunfelker, 1971;Giambra, 1969;Krebs, 1970;Schvaneveldt, 1966;Shore and Sechrest, 1961;Taplin, 1971;Weber and Woodward, 1966).…”

“…For more complicated rule learning negative instances are favored ( Clark, 1971 ). It has been hypothesized by Bourne, Ekstrand, and Dominowski (1971) that "the most important consideration for understanding how people use stimulus information is, in all probability, the number of different instances contained in the positive and negative categories (p. 265).…”

Analyse génétique de l'autorégulation et de la performance dans une tâche de formation de concepts

“…Quoique frtquemment utilist dans la littirature comme indice de la performance (v.g. Bourne, Ekstrand et Montgomery, 1969;Dickstein, 1972;Durling et Schick, 1976), ce simple total est insuffisant pour estimer la qualite de la dtmarche parce qu'il ne tient pas compte de la nature particuliere des cartes choisies. Le second indice, plus rktlateur, examine le nombre de cartes inutiles choisies par le sujet.…”

The role of memory aids in two instructional paradigms: Learning and utilization of logical rules

“…0020-4277/81/0000-0000/$02.50 0 1981 Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company It is no surprise to find the research literature which abounds with the findings that the provision of memory aids in the form of feedback instances facilitates overall AI performance (Bourne, Goldstein and Link;Byers, Davidson and Rohwer, 1968;Chumbley, Lau, Rog and Haile, 197 1;McVaugh, 1973;Bourne, Ekstrand and Montgomery, 1968;Denny, 1969). Logical concept learning involves two major aspects, AI and RL.…”