CATEGORIZATION DYNAMICS IN A HYBRID CONNECTIONIST MODEL

提出的研究探索混合系统的潜力，以解释正常的人类类别学习行为。类别学习指的是一个人必须学习将刺激分类为离散的组的任何情况，例如医学生必须学习将症状集合分类为疾病类别。该研究将Erickson和Kruschke开发的混合规则加范例分类模型与Usher和McClelland开发的感知选择反应时间行为模型相结合。这个新的动态模型将通过应用于四个类别学习实验的数据来进行测试。前三个实验涉及一个规则加上例外。在前两个部分中，我们将评估人们在这种情况下学习对可分离维度和整体维度刺激进行分类的方式。第三，响应信号范式将用于在人们进行分类时打断他们，以评估处理优先级在基于规则和基于范例的表示之间如何随时间变化。最后一项实验评估维度注意是否像视觉空间注意一样受到启动的影响。拟议的研究与我们的心理健康知识有关，因为它将有助于确定正常成年人的潜在机制。此外，在某种程度上，证据表明基于规则和基于范例的处理组件是可分离的，这项研究将对正常人和那些有精神挑战或脑损伤的人的教学方法和治疗产生广泛的影响。

The proposed research explores the potential of hybrid systems to account for normal human category-learning behavior. Category learning refers to any situation in which a person must learn to classify stimuli into discrete groups, such as a medical student who must learn to classify collections of symptoms into disease categories. The proposed research combines a hybrid, rule-plus- exemplar model of categorization developed by Erickson and Kruschke with a model of perceptual choice reaction time behavior developed by Usher and McClelland. This new, dynamic model will be tested by applying it to data from four category-learning experiments. The first three experiments involve a rule plus exceptions. In the first two, the way people learn to classify separable- and integral-dimension stimuli in this setting will be evaluated. In the third, a response-signal paradigm will be used to interrupt people while they are making classification in order to evaluate how processing priorities change over time between rule- and exemplar-based representations. The final experiment evaluates whether dimensional attention is subject to priming as is visual spatial attention. The proposed research is relevant to our knowledge of mental health insofar as it will help identify underlying mechanisms in normal adults. Moreover, to the degree that evidence is obtained showing that rule- and exemplar-based processing components are dissociable, this research will have broad implications for teaching methods and therapies for both normals and those with mental challenges or brain damage.