Initial training with difficult items does not facilitate category learning. Issue 2 (February 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Edmunds, CER; Wills, Andy J; Milton, Fraser
• Other Names: Haselgrove Mark guest-editor.; McLaren IPL guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. Volume 72:Issue 2(2019)
• Page Start: 151
• Page End: 167
• Publication Date: 2019-02
• Subjects: Categorisation -- transfer along a continuum -- implicit -- explicit; Psychology, Experimental -- Periodicals; Psychophysiology -- Periodicals; Psychology, Comparative -- Periodicals; 150.72405
• DOI: 10.1080/17470218.2017.1370477
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1747-0218

Abstract

In the phenomenon of transfer along a continuum (TAC), initial training on easy items facilitates later learning of a harder discrimination. TAC is a widely replicated cross-species phenomenon that is well predicted by certain kinds of associative theory. A recent report of an approximately opposite phenomenon (i.e., facilitation by initial training on hard items) poses a puzzle for such theories, but is predicted by a dual-system model (COVIS). However, across four experiments, we present substantial evidence that this counterintuitive finding was in error. Rather, the result appears to be a false positive and, as such, should not form part of the evidence base for COVIS nor be considered as a counter-example to the pervasive TAC phenomenon.