Stimulus-Rule Interactions in Concept Verification

Abstract

The difficulty of learning a conceptual rule has been shown to depend upon the stimulus attributes which that rule conjoins. For what appear to be separable attributes, the disjunctive rule is easier than the conjunctive. In contrast, for what appear to be integrable attributes, the conjunctive rule is easier. This paper reports six experiments designed to determine whether the integrality of stimulus attributes affects the speed of verification of the stimulus, as positive or negative, with respect to a given conjunctive or disjunctive concept. The pattern of reaction times is not consistent with the result of rule-learning experiments and does not support an integrality hypothesis. Verification times seem to be more a function of the perceptual salience of the relevant attributes of the concept. Thus, a perceptual-integrality hypothesis is an unlikely explanation of rule learning results.