AN INVESTIGATION OF CONDITIONS INFLUENCING THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERCEPTUAL SETS,
Abstract
The experiment was designed to measure transfer effects in a perceptual-motor task when (a) the critical stimulus dimension which was irrelevant in the first task became relevant for performance on the second task and (b) where the same stimulus dimension was relevant for both tasks but responses were interchanged. The experiment was conducted in two sessions separated by 24 hours. On Day 1 subjects learned to make the appropriate one of four responses to each of a series of 16 stimuli in terms of four stimulus cues based on either the form or color properties of the stimuli. On Day 2 subjects of different groups learned critical variants of the original task. The data suggest that (a) negative transfer is greater when shifting from one dimension of relevance to another than when changing the responses required within the same stimulus dimensions and (b) only weak evidence that partial reinforcement is responsible for the difficulty in shifting to learning in the new dimensions. These results imply that, in designing a trainer, it would be highly inadvisable to include a stimulus dimension which would be relevant in the operational situation and not have it relevant for performance on the trainer. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 1963
- Accession Number
- AD0432498
Entities
People
- Armand N. Chambers
- Delos D. Wickens
Organizations
- Ohio State University