Premium
CONCEPT FORMATION IN AN ORDERING TASK
Author(s) -
SHAFFER L. HENRY
Publication year - 1961
Publication title -
british journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.536
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8295
pISSN - 0007-1269
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8295.1961.tb00801.x
Subject(s) - psychology , task (project management) , set (abstract data type) , context (archaeology) , presentation (obstetrics) , concept learning , cognitive psychology , social psychology , computer science , programming language , medicine , paleontology , management , radiology , economics , biology
Subjects were given the opportunity of forming a concept, while carrying out a discrimination task, which would order a set of polygons. The likelihood of forming a concept was examined under different conditions of instruction, material and display presentation. The concept had to be formed in the absence of any trial‐by‐trial knowledge of results. The results show that subjects were more likely to discover the relevant concept if they were instructed that some concept might be applicable than if this instruction was withheld, and if three rather than two polygons appeared in the display. The notion of ‘concept’ is reviewed and the study of concept formation is discussed in the context of inventive reasoning.