Concept Learning, Perceptual Fluency, and Expert Classification
Derek E. Zeigler · OhioLink ETD Center (Ohio Library and Information Network) · 2016
Director of Dissertation: Ronaldo VigoThe way in which category specific knowledge is acquired over time has been a longstanding central topic in the cognitive and perceptual sciences.Accordingly, the influence of training and experience on learning has been the focus of much empirical work.This research often involves accounting for the results of concept learning tasks that necessitate classifying category members and non-members.Studies in this area explore questions like the following.Can different concepts be ordered by their relative learning difficulty?Does repeated exposure to a concept result in perceptual expertise and/or expert classification?Is concept acquisition inherently easier for some individuals?The relative difficulty between categories tells us something fundamental about the conceptual system by revealing which relational structures humans are most sensitive.As such, concept learning difficulty orderings for categorical stimuli form an important part of the empirical foundation of concept learning research.However, it is rare that the stability of such orderings is tested over a period of extended learning.Further, this research rarely explores dependent variables beyond classification accuracy that may also indicate relative learning difficulty.Accordingly, this investigation explores the relationship between accuracy and response times (RTs) when practice is gained over multiple category learning sessions.Of particular interest is the extent to which the relative learning difficulty between categories remains stable over sessions of learning.