Successful generalization of conceptual knowledge after training to remember specific events

Abstract

Categorization involves grouping information to make inferences and support noveldecisions. In the laboratory, category training commonly involves trial-and-error whereparticipants are instructed to classify stimuli and learn through feedback. Here, wetested across two experiments whether people can acquire category knowledge in anincidental manner by associating category members with other information that itself isstructured. Subjects were trained to remember specific associations consisting ofcartoon animals paired with animal-specific background scenes. Animals presented onforest vs. mountain scenes were members of two prototype-based categories, but thiswas not conveyed to the participants. Spontaneous category learning was tested byasking participants to guess habitat (mountains, forests) for old and new cartoonanimals without feedback. The results showed that participants spontaneously acquiredcategory knowledge, showing high categorization accuracy for new animals,comparable to a group that underwent a traditional feedback-based classificationtraining with the same stimuli. Strategy analysis showed that the majority of participantsin both groups abstracted the central tendency of the categories, albeit a somewhatlarger proportion of subjects relied on memory for specific training exemplars afterpaired-associate learning than classification training. No evidence was found thatcategory learning happened at the expense of memory for specific animal-sceneassociations. Overall, the findings show that despite the goal to remember specificinformation that required differentiation of stimuli within categories, subjects canspontaneously acquire category knowledge, generalizable to novel stimuli in a waycomparable to traditional classification training. This work provides new insights intohow category learning can proceed under more naturalistic demands.