Intellectual Ability, Concept Rule and Effectiveness of Selection and Reception as Methods of Stimulus Presentation

Abstract

Selection and reception concept-attainment paradigms were compared in a study employing a 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 repeated-measures factorial design in which the variables were (a) paradigm (selection or reception), (b) concept rule (conjunction or conditional), (c) intellectual ability (high or low), (d) problems (two per S). Results indicated that with regard to the number of cards to solution: reception was superior to selection, the conditional rule was more difficult than the conjunctive, the performance of Ss of high intellectual ability was better than that of Ss of lesser ability, improvement occurred from Problem 1 to Problem 2. In addition, the interaction of intellectual ability and paradigm was statistically significant as was the interaction of paradigm and concept rule.