Abstract
A comparison of the performance of 15 adult Ss who were required to verbalize hypotheses and to make category responses during concept acquisition to that of 15 Ss who made only category responses indicated that verbalization does not greatly influence the acquisition process. Tests of stationarity for the acquisition process support an all-or-nothing model of concept acquisition. A win-stay, lose-shift strategy of hypothesis testing prevailed, regardless of the complexity of the hypothesis under consideration. It was found that, in the absence of cues as to the nature of the solution concept, Ss typically first considered simple one-attribute hypotheses and then moved on to more complex two- and three-attribute hypotheses.
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This research was supported by University of Victoria Faculty Research Grant No. 08-821
The authors are indebted to Dr. Richard B. May for suggestions as to the parametric analysis of win-stay, lose-shift strategies
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Wilson, A., Spellacy, F. Cognitive process in auditory concept acquisition. Psychon Sci 28, 343–345 (1972). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03328759
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03328759