Concept Attainment Task Research Articles

Integrating the concept attainment teaching model and videodisk images

Preservice elementary teachers’ responses to a concept attainment task using videodisk pictures and line drawings are discussed in this case study. Two investigations provided answers to the following: 1) What affects students’ perceptions and responses to a concept attainment task?, and 2) What influences students to use observations to construct patterns? While using only videodisk pictures (N=52), most students used inferences to construct patterns. In contrast, students using line drawings in concert with pictures (N=26) significantly made more observations and fewer ideas to make viable patterns.

Mathematical Information Processing Skills and Concept Attainment

Mathematically oriented subjects (students of mathematics and physics) were compared with nonmathematically oriented subjects (students of English and Arabic languages) on a conjunctive concept attainment task to test the assumption that the problem-solving cognitive strategies of such tasks resemble certain mathematical information processing skills. The results showed that both groups approached the task differently, with a more effective performance by the mathematically orient

Paired Versus Individual Learning in Testing Hypotheses

Abstract Sixty male and female subjects solved two sets of concept attainment tasks in two sessions separated by 48 hr. Subjects solved the first set as individuals or in same-sex pairs. All subjects solved the second set as individuals. The hypothesis-testing processing of those subjects initially trained as pairs fell below that of the individually trained subjects in the transfer session. It is suggested that group monitoring of inductive problem solving leads to negative group-to-individual transfer of hypothesis-testing processes.

Developmental Preferences for Action Role Versus Word-Order Strategies: A Curious “U”-Shaped Function

A concept-attainment task was presented to 6-, 8-, and 11-yr.-old children ( N = 96) to determine age-related differences in selection of action role or word-order problem-solving strategies. Children identified characters of puzzle pictures either on the basis of action role (agent-patient) or on the basis of word order ( N1— N2) of sentences describing the puzzle pictures. Results indicated that a significantly greater number of 8-yr.-olds employed word-order strategies than 6- or 11-yr.-olds. An argument which accounts for these findings is advanced which focuses on the developing metalinguistic skills of 8-yr.-olds and an appreciation of the linear form of language which is brought to consciousness by the process of learning to read.

Effects of Competition in Concept Attainment: Rivalry, Coaction, and Problem Difficulty

Summary The effects of competition on a concept attainment task involving cognitive learning and performance were assessed by isolating two motivational elements in competition within a factorial design. Sixty Ss who were either coacting or isolated with or without rivalry inducing instructions solved two difficult concept problems followed by two easy problems. It was predicted that either coaction, rivalry, or both would inhibit learning on the difficult problems but facilitate performance on the easy problems. For the measure of instance selections to solution, coaction interacted with trials for the difficult problems, indicating the inhibiting effects of coaction, but the differences became nonsignificant when Ss were shifted to easy problems. There were no effects for rivalry instructions. The results are consistent with the effects of competition on concept attainment found in previous research in which the elements of competition were not isolated.

Predictive Strategies in Diagnostic Tasks

A concept attainment model of diagnosis was used to study the influence of inferential ability and restricted-unrestricted information conditions on 60 nurses' hypothesis-scanning strategies, diagnostic accuracy, and confidence in two diagnostic tasks. A selection paradigm, similar to the game of Twenty Questions, was employed, and it was assumed that verbal reports of how information was being utilized were reliable indicators of scanning procedures. Analysis of variance, t tests, chi-square analyses, and the Cochrane Q test were used in data analyses. Subjects' behavior approximated a model strategy of predictive hypothesis testing in diagnostic concept attainment tasks involving surgical complications. Neither the interaction between inferential ability and information conditions nor the effect of inferential ability alone influenced the dependent variables, although prolonged predictive hypothesis testing and unrestricted information conditions were associated with greater inaccuracies. Inplications for nursing history taking and diagnosis are discussed.

REDUNDANCY IN THE CONCEPT ATTAINMENT OF ADOLESCENTS

Summary. The production of informationally redundant choices in a selection concept attainment task was investigated in relation to age and intelligence, using 62 adolescents aged 12:7—15:6 drawn from the lower middle ability range of a comprehensive school. Subjects scoring below the 20th percentile on intelligence were found to make a significantly greater proportion of such choices when compared with subjects scoring above the 80th percentile, and the prediction of a discontinuity in the decrease in redundancy with increasing age was confirmed. Differences in redundancy due to age and intelligence were found to be of a type which is largely attributable to lack of confidence in reasoning ability, desire for verification of hypotheses, and preference for testing hypotheses directly rather than drawing inferences from information already available.

The Use of Generalized Learning Curves as a Means for Identifying Strategies in a Concept Attainment Task

Eighty-five male and female Ss were administered a battery of selected psychological measurements along with twelve conjunctive- type concepts. Concept time-to-criterion scores were factor analyzed to obtain generalized learning curves. Factor scores on these curves were then computed and studied to identify concept attainment strategies. Three such strategies-conservative focusing, hypothesis testing, and association learning-were so identified. The psychological measures could be seen to be differentially related to these concept attainment strategies.

Transfer between two settings for some concept attainment tasks.

Transfer between two settings for some concept attainment tasks.

Transfer between two settings for some concept attainment tasks.

Transfer between two settings for some concept attainment tasks.

Propositional self-control in children

The scope of Dulany's (1968) Theory of Propositional Control was examined using 54 11 1 2 -, 8 1 2 -, and 4 1 2 -year-olds . Significance of the reinforcer was manipulated orthogonally to value of the reinforcer. With a six attribute concept attainment task 4 1 2 - year-olds did not learn in either of two significant ways: a performance change over blocks, nor the acquisition of a rule of reinforcement. Children of 8 1 2 and 11 1 2 learned in both of the above senses. In addition, for the latter subjects the central equations of the theory held with strength and subjects' intentions accounted for more variance in performance than did the experimental manipulations. In supplementary experiments using a simplified task some 4 1 2 - year-olds learned. When only the 4 1 2 - year-olds who learned to a criterion were examined the central equations of the theory were nearly as strong as for subjects at ages 8 1 2 and 11 1 2 . There was no evidence for learning without awareness at any age level.

Cognitive complexity: a brief synthesis of theoretical approaches and a concept attainment task analogue to cognitive structure.

Cognitive complexity is seen as comprised of two components, a discriminating and an integrating structure. Theorists have tended to concentrate on one structural component or the other, often ignoring important conceptual distinctions between approaches. A concept-attainment analogue to cognitive complexity is presented to aid in analysing the components of cognitive complexity and theoretical approaches to cognitive complexity.

Verbal discrimination as a concept-attainment task using the evaluative dimension.

Verbal discrimination as a concept-attainment task using the evaluative dimension.

Intellectual and conceptual acquisition in retarded children: A follow-up study

Institutionalized retarded children participated in a follow-up study 13 months after their participation in a behavior modification program. The objective of the original experimental program was to provide training in the acquisition of conceptual and intellectual skills. The program employed the use of modeling, information feedback, and social and material reinforcement. A control condition was evaluated also, in which Ss received 10 h of social interaction but no experimental training. It was found that Ss who participated previously in the experimental program functioned at a high level on the concept attainment task. In addition, the original gains in IQ reported for the Ss in the experimental condition were retained, and the initially severely retarded Ss continued to increase their IQ scores during the 13-month interval.

Effect of monetary incentive on concept attainment in depressed subjects.

An experiment was conducted to determine whether highly depressed and non-depressed psychiatric inpatients and non-patient normal controls react differently on a concept attainment task to different reinforcement contingencies. Specifically, it was hypothesized that: 1) Depressed and non-depressed psychiatric patients and normal controls would perform at approximately the same levels on a concept attainment task when they received informational feedback only. 2) Depressed patients would show less improvement than normals and non-depressed patients when positive reinforcement (money) was given in addition to informational feedback in a concept attainment task. 3) Depressed patients would show markedly poorer performance than non-depressed patients and normals when punishment was administered for incorrect responses according to certain deductions from Freud's theory, but would be predicted to perform as well or better according to Beck's theory. 4) Following Freud's theory, depressives might initially attain concepts because of the demands of their ‘duty morality’ but would subsequently give incorrect responses to avoid positive reinforcement and/or gain punishment, since they reject ‘pleasure morality.’ This wolld not be predicted by Beck's theory. 5) If, as Beck contends, depressives are more sensitive to fear and frustration than non-depressed persons, depressed patients should have greater response latencies under punishment conditions than non-depressed persons. A 3 x 4 factorial design was used with three diagnostic categories and four reinforcement conditions with four replications (4 Ss in each cell). The four reinforcement conditions were information feedback only, positive reinforcement only, punishment only, and positive reinforcement and punishment. The three diagnostic categories were high-depressed patients scoring greater than 24 on the Beck depression inventory (DI); low-depressed patients scoring less than 15 on the Beck DI; and normal controls. The results did not strongly support any of the five hypotheses. In general, effects attributable to the different reinforcement conditions were weak and did not interact with the diagnostic categories as required to . support the hypotheses. Normals tended to perform better than psychiatric patients, and punishment tended to be associated with longer response latencies than positive reinforcement. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Some Variables of Strategy Selection in Concept Attainment.

The present study investigated the variables of method of stimulus presentation, type of focal instance, type of strategy, and sex, in a conjunctive concept attainment task. The results indicated that an all positive series of focal cards resulted in the most efficient performance. The all negative-specified group was significantly better than the all negative-unspecified group. There was no significant difference between a focus gambling strategy and a conservative focusing strategy. The simultaneous method of stimulus presentation was shown to be superior to a successive method of presentation. There was no finding of a sex difference in concept attaining ability for each experimental condition.

Effect of stimulus and instructional variables in an ambiguous concept-attainment task.

Effect of stimulus and instructional variables in an ambiguous concept-attainment task.

Attribute-Response Correlations in Concept Attainment

The attainment of three concepts was studied with all irrelevant attributes uncorrelated, or with up to two irrelevant attributes partly correlated, with the responses. The correlated irrelevant attributes increased trials to criterion or led to new solutions based on these attributes. All-or-none learning was evident when individual attributes (relevant or irrelevant) had zero or perfect correlations with the responses, but not when one or more attributes had intermediate correlations. Almost all the subjects' solutions used combinations of affirmations and conjunctions rather than disjunctions and other complex rules that would also have been correct. The concept-attainment task requires that the subject learn to assign a set of responses to some larger set of stimuli. Usually the stimuli vary along several discrete attributes and the subject is expected to learn a rule involving one or more of these attributes to assign the responses to the appropriate stimuli. Most concept-attainment experiments involve two classes of attributes-relevant and irrelevant. The relevant attributes are those that are pertinent to the conceptual rule. The irrelevant attributes are those that are not pertinent to the conceptual rule, and usually they are orthogonal to both the responses and the relevant attributes. It is not necessary, however, for irrelevant attributes to be orthogonal to the responses, and frequently in real life the irrelevant attributes are partly correlated with them. Several investigators have manipulated the magnitude of the correlation between the irrelevant attributes and the responses, but the results are inconsistent. Bourne and Haygood (1960) varied the correlation of an irrelevant attribute in a single-attribute tworesponse concept. They found that an increase in the correlation produced a decrease in both number of errors and trials to criterion. But Gormezano and Grant (1958) and Abraham, Gormezano, and Wiehe (1964) varied the correlation of an irrelevant attribute in the fourresponse Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and found that an increase in the correlation had no effect on number of errors but did increase trials to criterion.

The relative effectiveness of positive and negative information feedback in a concept attainment task

The relative effectiveness of positive and negative verbal feedback was investigated in an attempt to ascertain whether the differential effect was due to reinforcement value of the feedback or to some difference in information gained from the feedback. College Ss solved a concept attainment task under one of two conditions: (1) right-nothing (R-N), feedback for correct responses only, or (2) nothing-wrong (N-W), feedback for incorrect responses only. The expectation that, when the frequency of “right” and “wrong” feedback was controlled, there would be no difference between conditions was not supported, with N-W Ss performing significantly better than R-N Ss.

The Relationship between Conceptual Learning and Curricular Achievement

The relationship between performance on concept attainment tasks and information processing tasks and performance on selected curricular achievement tests was examined through factor analytic procedures. Results indicated that information processing of exemplar information and concept attainment of exemplar information are highly related to curricular factors. Other specific information processing factors, namely science and spelling, were only moderately related to curricular achievement. From these relationships, it seems likely that there is a high relationship between exemplar information processing and concept attainment of exemplar information with curricular factors generally and that more liberal generalizations of research results from tightly controlled experimental settings to conventional learning situations seem justified.