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Prior experience can influence whether the whole is different from the sum of its parts
- Source :
-
Learning & Motivation . Feb2005, Vol. 36 Issue 1, p20-41. 22p. - Publication Year :
- 2005
-
Abstract
- Abstract: In two conditioning experiments with humans, we found that participants’ prior experience exerted considerable influence on later learning of configural discrimination problems. Prior experience was manipulated by pre-training participants before the main acquisition stage. They either received a discrimination problem that encouraged an elemental solution (A+, B−, AB+, CD− in Experiment 1 and A+, AB+, C−, CB− in Experiment 2) or one that required a configural solution (AB+, BC−, CD+, DA− in Experiment 1 and A−, AB+, C+, CB− in Experiment 2). Then, all participants were shown a discrimination that required a configural solution (E+, F+, EF− in Experiment 1 and DE+, EF−, FG+, GD− in Experiment 2). In both experiments, participants who had received elemental pre-training were impaired on the later configural problem compared to participants who had received configural pre-training. The results suggest that organisms can flexibly process stimuli elementally or configurally. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]
- Subjects :
- *CLASSICAL conditioning
*CONDITIONED response
*LEARNING
*GALVANIC skin response
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00239690
- Volume :
- 36
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Learning & Motivation
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 17344306
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lmot.2004.06.002