title: The interaction between specific and general information in category learning and representation: unitization and parallel interactive processing.
abstract: We investigated the effects of specific stimulus information on the use of rule information in a category learning task in 2 experiments, one presented here and an intercategory transfer task reported in an earlier article. In the present experiment photograph--name combinations, called identifiers, were associated with 4 demographic attributes. The same attribute information was shown to all participants. However, for one group of participants, half of the identifiers were paired with attribute values repeated over presentation blocks. For the other group the identifier information was new for each presentation block. The first group performed less well than the second group on stimuli with nonrepeated identifiers, indicating a negative effect of specific stimulus information on processing rule information. Application of a network model to the 2 experiments, which provided for the growth of connections between attribute values in learning, indicated that repetition of identifiers produced a unitizing effect on stimuli. Results suggested that unitization produced interference through connections between irrelevant attribute values.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Brain Sciences, University of Louisville, KY 40292, USA. idnahi01@gwise.louisville.edu
authors.forename: Irwin D
authors.initials: ID
authors.lastname: Nahinsky
authors.forename: J Isaiah
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Harbison
mesh_terms: D001245:Association Learning; D002321:Career Choice; D002605:Character; D003210:Concept Formation; D005149:Facial Expression; D005793:Generalization, Psychological; D006686:Hobbies; D006801:Humans; D008960:Models, Psychological; D016571:Neural Networks, Computer; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011057:Politics; D011337:Probability Learning; D011340:Problem Solving