Feedback can be superior to observational training for both rule-based and information-integration category structures
Edmunds, CER; Milton, FN; Wills, AJ
Date: 9 January 2015
Article
Journal
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
Publisher
Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
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Abstract
The effects of two different types of training on rule-based and information-integration category learning were investigated in two experiments. In observational training, a category label is presented, followed by an example of that category and the participant's response. In feedback training, the stimulus is presented, and the ...
The effects of two different types of training on rule-based and information-integration category learning were investigated in two experiments. In observational training, a category label is presented, followed by an example of that category and the participant's response. In feedback training, the stimulus is presented, and the participant assigns it to a category and then receives feedback about the accuracy of that decision. Ashby, Maddox, and Bohil (2002. Observational versus feedback training in rule-based and information-integration category learning. Memory & Cognition, 30, 666–677) reported that feedback training was superior to observational training when learning information-integration category structures, but that training type had little effect on the acquisition of rule-based category structures. These results were argued to support the COVIS (competition between verbal and implicit systems) dual-process account of category learning. However, a number of nonessential differences between their rule-based and information-integration conditions complicate interpretation of these findings. Experiment 1 controlled between-category structures for participant error rates, category separation, and the number of stimulus dimensions relevant to the categorization. Under these more controlled conditions, rule-based and information-integration category structures both benefited from feedback training to a similar degree. Experiment 2 maintained this difference in training type when learning a rule-based category that had otherwise been matched, in terms of category overlap and overall performance, with the rule-based categories used in Ashby et al. These results indicate that differences in dimensionality between the category structures in Ashby et al. is a more likely explanation for the interaction between training type and category structure than the dual-system explanation that they offered.
Psychology - old structure
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