Delayed feedback disrupts the procedural-learning system but not the hypothesis-testing system in perceptual category learning.
W. T. Maddox, F. G. Ashby, and C. J. Bohil (2003) found that delayed feedback adversely affects information-integration but not rule-based category learning in support of a multiple-systems approach to category learning. However, differences in the number of stimulus dimensions relevant to solving the task and perceptual similarity failed to rule out 2 single-system interpretations. The authors conducted an experiment that remedied these problems and replicated W. T. Maddox et al.'s findings. The experiment revealed a strong performance decrement for information-integration but not rule-based category learning under delayed feedback that was due to an increase in the number of observers using hypothesis-testing strategies to solve the information-integration task, and lower accuracy rates for the few observers using information-integration strategies.
Maddox
W Todd
WT
Department of Psychology, University of Texas, Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA. maddox@psy.utexas.edu
Ing
A David
AD
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005246:Feedback; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D010465:Perception; D012660:Semantics