Accessing similarity and dimensional relations: effects of integrality and separability on the discovery of complex concepts

Abstract

A series of studies investigated how stimulus integrality and separability impact the cognitive accessibility of similarity and dimensional relations. A good deal of previous work has established that stimulus integrality and separability differentially determine perception; here, the question is whether they also have differential effects on conception. Are the principles that govern perception also principles that can be readily discovered in concept learning tasks? Is a similarity-based rule especially easy to abstract from integral stimuli and a dimensionally-based rule especially easy to abstract from separable stimuli? In Experiments 1 and 2, we measured the relative ease with which the two types of rules (similarity and dimensional) are discovered by adults with the two types of stimuli (integral and separable). In experiment 1, the two rules were made redundant and we asked which rule the subjects learned. In Experiment 2, one rule was made relevant and the other irrelevant, and we compared relative speeds of learning. The results from the studies led us to conclude (a) that dimensionally based rules are more accessible from separable than from integral stimuli; (b) that similarity-based rules are more accessible from integral than from separable stimul; and (c) that, in general, subjects have a bias to access dimensional relations in this type of task. Experiment 3 pursued an additional suggestion from Experiments 1 and 2 that the dimensional relations within integral stimuli are sometimes accessible, more so when larger interstimulus differences are encountered. In confirmation, Experiment 3 demonstrated that adult subjects are more successful in applying a dimensional rule to pairs of integral stimuli that differ by a small amount if they also have exposure to pairs of integral stimuli that differ by a large amount. In a later discussion, it was argued that such a finding is consistent with the notion that the "dimensions" of integral stimuli are merely arbitrary directions in the integral stimulus space, and some relevant pilot data to that effect were presented. Finally, Experiment 4 took up a developmental issue. Young children have sometimes produced perceptual responses governed by similarity relations when presented with stimuli that are separable for adults. Will they more readily access similarity-based or dimensionally-based relations from such stimuli in the concept learning tasks here? The results showed that both kindergarteners and fifth graders more readily access the dimensional relations. A final discussion integrated the findings from the several experiments, taking up the following issues: (a) the relation between the perception and the conception of stimulus relations and (b) the nonprimacy of the dimensional axes in the integral stimulus space.