LEARNING SET AND STRATEGY INTERACTION IN CONCEPT LEARNING

Investigated the effects of 2 inital learning tasks and 2 instructional strategies on concept attainment using 73 undergraduates. The learning tasks consisted of information-processing problems or concept-attainment problems. Subsequent to these acquisition tasks, Ss were instructed in either a commonality or a conservative strategy according to a 2 * 2 factorial design and then administered 20 concept-attainment problems. An analysis of variance of the final concept-attainment scores indicated that the group which received the conservative instructions following initial learning on the concept-attainment test did not perform as well as did: (a) the group which received the conservative instructions subsequent to the initial learning task of information processing, and (b) the 2 groups that received commonality instructions. A 2nd analysis revealed that conservative instructions inhibited final concept learning of Ss who received initial learning on the concept-attainment test. A t test failed to show significant differences in concept attainment between groups initially performing a concept-attainment task and groups performing a concept-attainment task after training on an information-processing task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.