Browsing by Subject "Category-learning"

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Interactions between global and local performance incentives on decision-making and categorization
(2010-08) Worthy, Darrell Andrew; Maddox, W. Todd; Markman, Arthur B.; Love, Bradley C.; Beer, Jennifer S.; Loewenstein, Jeffrey
Recent work has shown that the regulatory fit between global approach/avoidance goals and the local approach/avoidance mechanisms of goal pursuit influence cognition and behavior in predictable ways. A regulatory fit leads to an increase in motivation and engagement relative to a regulatory mismatch. The increase in engagement can lead to an increase in cognitive flexibility on cognitively demanding tasks. This work is composed of three inter-related studies that examine how the fit between global performance incentives and local mechanisms of goal pursuit influence decision-making and categorization. In Study 1 I examine how the interaction between global performance incentives and local goal pursuit mechanisms influences decision-making strategies in an experience-based decision-making paradigm. In this paradigm decision-making strategies can be classified as more exploratory or more exploitative. I find that participants in a regulatory fit would exhibit more exploratory decision-making patterns than participants in a regulatory mismatch. In Study 2 I examine how social pressure is related to approach and avoidance-based performance incentives using two types of category-learning tasks. I test the hypothesis that increasing performance pressure will induce an avoidance-based prevention focus which then interacts with the local mechanism of goal pursuit employed in the task (maximizing points gained or minimizing points lost). Participants either perform an explicit, rule-based category-learning task, or an implicit information-integration category-learning task. Behavioral and model-based analyses support the hypothesis that social pressure induces a prevention focus. When the pressure-induced prevention focus aligns with the local goal-pursuit mechanism participants perform better on the rule-based task, but worse on the information-integration task. Study 3 examines the effects of social pressure on categorization in highly-trained participants. Participants performed over 2500 training trials of either a rule-based or an information-integration category-learning task, and then performed another 640 trials after half received a manipulation designed to raise social pressure. Performance was worse on both the rule-based and information-integration task for participants who were under high social pressure compared to participants under low social pressure. The results from all three projects suggest that motivational incentives have a large effect on cognitively demanding tasks.
Sequencing effects on the acquisition and retention of general knowledge and detailed memory specificity
(2018-10-04) Noh, Sharon Mina; Preston, Alison R.; Lewis-Peacock, Jarrod A
Using a category learning paradigm, we measured the acquisition and retention of generalized (category-level) and detailed (exemplar-level) knowledge as a function of different learning experiences to improve different types of knowledge (general vs. specific). Participants were trained to identify paintings by different artists for which half of the artists were studied in a blocked sequence and the remainder were interleaved. Participants were tested on general (category) and more detailed (exemplar) knowledge, both immediately after training and after a 1-week delay. We found that although memory performance declines over time, generalized knowledge is more stable. Our results also suggest that generalization and specificity may be competing processes: on immediate test, the schedule that is better for general knowledge (interleaved) is worse for detailed memory, and vice versa. Collectively, our results can inform theories of learning and memory and help determine the optimal conditions for enhancing long-term retention in various contexts.