Journal article
Limited Attention and Cue Order Consistency Affect Predictive Learning: A Test of Similarity Measures
Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition, Vol.28(3), pp.484-496
05/2002
DOI: 10.1037/0278-7393.28.3.484
Abstract
The authors empirically tested the similarity metrics underlying 2 predictive-learning theories: J. K. Kruschke's (1992) attention learning covering map and J. M. Pearce's (1987, 1994) configural models. In Experiment 1, participants concurrently learned 3 types of discriminations: simple (A- vs. B+), common cue (XC- vs. XD+), and compound (YE- vs. ZF+). Accuracy was ordered: simple > compound > common cue. Neither model anticipated this ordering. In Experiment 2, cue order in 2-element configurations was either inconsistent (e.g., YE and EY) as in Experiment 1 or consistent (e.g., EY throughout). Although accuracy differences were smaller under consistent ordering, the relative difficulty of the tasks was the same as in Experiment 1. In Experiment 3, common cue and compound discriminations were tested in different participants to determine whether the ordering of difficulty in Experiments 1 and 2 was caused by differential generalization mediated by the number of elements; the ordering was the same as in Experiments 1 and 2. These results suggest the need for differential attention to event presence and absence and to mechanisms that incorporate limited attentional capacity.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Limited Attention and Cue Order Consistency Affect Predictive Learning: A Test of Similarity Measures
- Creators
- Michael E Young - Department of Psychology, Southern Illinois University at CarbondaleEdward A Wasserman - Department of Psychology, University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition, Vol.28(3), pp.484-496
- Publisher
- American Psychological Association
- DOI
- 10.1037/0278-7393.28.3.484
- ISSN
- 0278-7393
- eISSN
- 1939-1285
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 05/2002
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
- Record Identifier
- 9984070893302771
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