The effects of type and amount of pretraining on transfer in concept formation.

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of 2 types of directed attention pretraining, a form of stimulus predifferentiation, on immediate- and delayed-transfer tasks in concept identification. In both experiments, the participants received either the "seeing-and-discriminating" or "seeing" technique of pretraining, except for those assigned to the control group. The participants received different amounts of pretraining. In the first experiment, participants were required to learn new concepts from the same category for the delayed-transfer task, whereas in the second experiment, the delayed-transfer task involved concepts from a different category. Among the major findings in both experiments are that the pretraining methods resulted in positive transfer on all transfer tasks. In general, the seeing-and-discriminating method yielded a more positive transfer than the seeing technique. Maximal positive transfer effects were found with a small number of trials. The implications of the findings for understanding the effectiveness of various training methods used for problem solving are discussed.

Effects of frequency of feedback on transfer in concept identification.

Two experiments were performed to investigate the effects of frequency of feedback on immediate- and delayed-transfer tasks in concept identification. In the first experiment, subjects were required to learn new concepts from the same category for the transfer tasks, whereas in the second experiment the transfer tasks involved concepts from a different category. Among the major findings was that although lowering the percentage of feedback trials slows concept attainment, it facilitated transfer on all transfer tasks. In general, the fewer the number of feedback trials subjects received, the greater the amount of transfer. The results are consistent with other studies that suggest that conditions that make it more difficult for subjects to initially learn a task may have positive benefits for transfer.

Scores on sensation seeking as a predictor of sexual activities among homosexuals.

Sensation seeking scores were positively correlated with the variety of homosexual activities and the number of homosexual partners within a gay population of 100. However, sensation seeking scores were not correlated with risky sexual practices.

A comparison of concept formation strategies in pattern recognition tasks.

We used two experiments to explore the effects of two kinds of strategies (nonanalytic and analytic) in concept formation. In Experiment 1, nonsense shapes were used as stimuli, which created ill-defined categories of concepts to be discovered by the subjects. In Experiment 2, highly recognizable geometrical patterns were used as stimuli, hereby placing an emphasis on the identification of highly salient categories of concepts. Subjects were better able to classify stimuli correctly in both experiments relying on memory (nonanalytic strategy) than on rule learning (analytic strategy). Here we discuss implications of nonanalytic strategy for understanding the nature of creativity.

Alternative theories of concept identification among older adults.

The purpose of the present experiment was to investigate some predictions of hypothesis testing and S-R association (frequency) theories regarding memory for intratrial events on a conjunctive concept-identification task. They have received extensive study with young adults but not with older subjects. The individual events under investigation were feedback, responses, hypotheses, and stimuli. Hypothesis-testing theory requires subjects to retain information concerning the correct hypothesis from one trial to the next whereas frequency does not. 75 subjects (60-70 yr. old) participated in the study. Subjects had difficulty in recalling the correct hypothesis stated on previous trials. These errors occurred on problems with negative response trials, not with incorrect feedback. The results contradict predictions based on hypothesis-testing models but are consistent with frequency theory. Unlike in the studies based on younger adults, present subjects did not recall the hypothesis very well under the conditions in which hypothesis testing was made part of the primary task.

Disjunctive Concept Formation: S-R Hypothesis Versus Cognitive Theory.

The present study investigated the learning of disjunctive concepts under different postfeedback conditions in order to test opposing S-R associational and hypothesis-testing theories. A reception paradigm was employed which involved the use of three types of postfeedback intervals and four different postfeedback interval lengths, with 180 college men and women. The results, overall, supported predictions based upon S-R associational theory, as leaning processes occurred on all trials and not just on trials in which an error occurred.

Methods of enhancing concept attainment in older adults.

Practice with informative feedback and active training were found to be effective in enhancing concept attainment in older adults. Fifty male and 50 female Ss, aged 60-79 years, were given a pretest and posttest, each involving conjunctive concept-identification problems. The practice-plus-informative-feedback groups (right-wrong, nothing-wrong, and right-nothing) discovered the concepts faster than the active training group. The last group outperformed a control group. These results, in contrast to previous studies, demonstrate that the elderly are capable of solving complex cognitive tasks, like younger Ss, by using their own self-generated strategies and currently available information. This is consistent with recent theory that emphasizes experiential factors as the basis for performance deficit in cognitive tasks for older adults.

Sex and generational differences in Senior Apperception Technique projections.

A major purpose of this study was to compare the projections of 50 young and 50 elderly subjects to the Seniors Apperception Technique. Specifically, the emotional contents of stories told to the test were compared for sex and generational differences. The results showed, in general, that, while the themes contained more negative than positive feelings, many individuals gave unhappy stories happy conclusions. In addition, the projections of elderly and female respondents were more positive than those of younger and male subjects. The findings were interpreted in light of Neugartin's disengagement theory.

The use of IQ as a measure of problem solving ability with mongoloid and nonmongoloid retarded children.

A major purpose of this study was to determine the relationship of MA and IQ to learning a task, among retardates, involving conceptualization. Such tasks are considered by Jensen, in his theory on mental abilities, to test Level II abilities as opposed to Level I abilities which involve rote learning and primary memory. The theoretical basis for this part of the experiment are the opposing hypotheses of Weir and Zigler concerning the use of IQ or MA as the best measure of learning rate. Specifically, a dimension-abstracted oddity task was presented to 40 mongoloids and 40 nonmongoloids. The results supported Weir's hypothesis, as IQ was found to determine the rate of learning the task. A second major finding was that the nonmongoloids learned the task faster than the mongoloid Ss.