Optimal sequences of stimuli for concept attainment in children of different ages
| dc.contributor.author | Morrison, Ian (Ian Robert) | en_US |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-08-14T22:53:35Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-08-14T22:53:35Z | |
| dc.date.copyright | 1979 | en_US |
| dc.date.issued | 1979 | |
| dc.degree.department | Department of Psychology | |
| dc.degree.level | Master of Arts M.A. | en |
| dc.description.abstract | Lee, Morrison, & Bavelas (unpublished manuscript, 1978) tested the proposal that wrong placements in a concept-formation task are more informative to the subject than correct placements. The authors rearranged stimulus sequences such that the stimuli on which one subject made errors would be the first stimuli to be presented to the next subject (this method of stimulus rearrangement is called an error-transformation). If incorrect placements are more informative than correct placements then this procedure should result in an improved stimulus sequence for each successive subject. That is, the concept should be attained in fewer stimuli. The results verified the prediction. The resulting stimulus sequences (e.g. the sequences for the last subjects) led to concept attainment in fewer stimuli. The authors suggested that different groups of subjects may derive different maximally efficient stimulus sequences. In Experiment I of this thesis children of three ages (e.g. kindergarten, grade 3, and grade 6) were considered to be different subject populations which may derive different stimulus sequences. The stimulus sequences improved (i.e. information was available within fewer stimuli near the beginning of the sequence) to an equal extent for all age groups. The kindergarten children, however, did not show any improvement in performance. Additional groups of subjects from the same three subject populations did not show any tendency to perform better on improved stimulus sequences derived from subjects of their own age. Grades 3 and 6 subjects performed best on stimulus sequences 1erived from all groups. In Experiment II the effect of dimensional preference in kindergarten children on the error-transformation method was investigated. No effect was found. Chapter IV presents an analysis of the stimuli in each sequence up to the point where the concept can be attained logically (e.g. pre-LK stimuli). The pre-LK stimuli produced by error-transformations of the older children's (grades 3 and 6) stimulus sequences were almost all stimuli which eliminated only one dimension. Furthermore, they were almost all positive instances of the relevant dimension. The pre-LK stimuli of the kindergarten children in both Experiments I and II were mostly stimuli that eliminated only one dimension but stimuli that eliminated two nonrelevant dimensions were also frequent. Like pre-LK stimuli of the older groups these were almost all positive instances. In Chapter V it is snown that almost any rearrangement of a stimulus sequence, by whatever method, will result in an informationally improved stimulus sequence. Rearrangements of stimulus sequences where stimuli are randomly assigned to be errors results in improved stimulus sequences. However, the pre-LK stimuli in stimulus sequences resulting in such rearrangements do not consist predominantly of stimuli which eliminate only one dimension, nor are they positive instances. The implications of these results for human performance are discussed. | en_US |
| dc.format.extent | 108 pages | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1828/19048 | |
| dc.rights | Available to the World Wide Web | en_US |
| dc.title | Optimal sequences of stimuli for concept attainment in children of different ages | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |
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