Context and Classification Learning

本项目旨在了解分类学习和性能背后的过程。一个焦点是，是什么使得一些类别自然、容易学习和使用，而另一些类别不自然、难以学习和使用。除了与如何最好地教授某些概念（例如，科学概念）的问题相关之外，自然性问题是评估分类理论的工具。也就是说，不同的理论对哪些概念容易使用和学习做出了不同的预测。提出的几个实验将通过向人们展示不同类型的类别结构来测试这些预测，看看这些理论能在多大程度上预测学习难度。一个相关的问题是，当人们可以自由创建自己的类别时，他们是如何组织示例的。再一次，我们的想法是看看是什么原则决定了范畴的构建，并将这些原则与其他理论的预测进行比较。该项目的另一个主要方面将是研究学习策略的实验，以及可能存在不同学习模式的想法。有一些证据表明，直接、明确地尝试学习困难的类别结构可能不如间接或非分析学习有效。一些实验将探索非显性学习是否会导致类似规则的表现，即使人们可能无法用语言表达他们的知识。最后，该项目将研究人们如何将关于类别的抽象信息和具体经验与实例结合起来。总的来说，该项目的目标是为人们如何学习、使用和更新概念和类别开发更好的理论。

This project aims to understand the processes underlying classification learning and performance. One focus is the question of what makes some categories natural, easy to learn and use, and other categories unnatural, difficult to learn, and awkward to use. Aside from relevance to the problem of how best to teach certain concepts (e.g., scientific concepts), the question of naturalness is a tool for evaluating categorization theories. That is, alternative theories make differing predictions about what kinds of concepts are easy to use and learn. Several of the proposed experiments will test these predictions by presenting people with different types of category structures to see how well the theories can predict difficulty of learning. A related question is how people organize examples when they are free to create their own categories. Again the idea is to see what principles determine category construction and to compare these principles with the predictions of alternative theories. Another major facet of the project will be experiments examining learning strategies and the idea that there may be distinct modes of learning. There is some evidence that direct, explicit attempts to learn difficult category structures may be less effective than indirect or nonanalytic learning. Several experiments will explore the possibility that nonexplicit learning will lead to rule-like performance even though people may be unable to verbalize their knowledge. Finally, the project will examine how people integrate abstract information about categories and concrete experience with examples. Overall, the project has the goal of developing better theories for how people learn about, use, and update concepts and categories.