The concreteness of attributes in concept learning strategies

Abstract

Ss were presented with conjunctive concept learning tasks using geometric stimuli in two experiments and using combinations of abstract characteristics in two other experiments. Evidence indicated that the conjunctive hypotheses for geometric stimuli were not mediated by component values but were sampled as unitized wholes. In contrast, conjunctive hypotheses for abstract attributes were sampled via independent combinations of component values. The differential processing was not found to be associated with the variation of stimuli on the verbal-nonverbal dimension. Reitman (1970) has conceptualized memory behavior as the product of a complex strategy system operating with substantial amounts of stored information. He has pointed to the great difficulty involved in decoupling storage and retrieval processes from the cognitive apparatus required by a specific task. Hence, studies of storage and retrieval in the relatively limited context of the usual recall and recognition tasks may not produce a comprehensive picture of memory processes. The use of conceptual tasks could perhaps tap more complex activities where stimulus characteristics are manipulated in memory. Several investigators (e.g., Mandler, 1967;Tulving, 1962) have studied the organization of verbal material revealed in free recall. Mandler argued that recall experiments reveal cognitive structure, i.e., the manner in which memory is organized. Studies investigating organization in memory have generally centered around category groupings based upon some defining characteristics of subsets of words in a list. Other important questions can be raised, however. If the task is one of discovering a correct rule for classifying stimuli, are similar organizational processes involved? Is the type of stimulus material used influential in determining the nature of these processes? Insofar as concept learning and sorting tasks combine various memory processes and conceptual strategies, these approaches engender simultaneous study of memory, cognitive structures, and information processing.The cognitive processes involved in approaching conceptual tasks may be influenced by the location of stimulus attributes on the concreteness-abstractness dimension. Paivio (1969) presented evidence that processing of material by visual imagery involves

Unitization during category learning.

“…Shepp and Barrett (1991) found that children are better able to acquire a conjunctive categorization when the conjoined dimensions are connected in the same object than when they are physically separated. Nahinsky, Slaymaker, Aamiry, and O'Brien (1973) similarly found that physical proximity of stimulus parts facilitated acquiring concepts that involved several of the parts. Finally, Saiki and Hummel (1996) found that concepts based on the conjunction of the shape of an object and its spatial location relative to a second object were much more easily acquired when the two objects were physically connected than when they were separated.…”

Differences in the saliency of sensory features elicited by words.

“…It is possible then that the positive effects observed here are due, in part, to instance imagery, a variable previously shown to influence ease of concept identification (Katz & Denny, 1977;Katz & Paivio, 1975;Reed & Dick, 1968). Since the present findings cannot be attributed to the controlled variable of image saliency dominance, an imagery based argument for these results would have to assume some other aspect of the imagery system, such as prevalence of parallel processing, is responsible for the increased availability of sensory information (see Nahinsky, Slaymaker, Aamiry, & O'Brien, 1973;Paivio, 1975). In any event, the results are not readily explicable in terms of the traditional interference explanations usually provided for variables analogous to the one manipulated here and further research on the surprising reversal which was observed is clearly warranted.…”