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Convergence‐divergence and the learning of concrete and abstract sentences
Author(s) -
SACKS H. V.,
EYSENCK MICHAEL W.
Publication year - 1977
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.2044-8295.1977.tb01578.x
Subject(s) - concreteness , psychology , divergence (linguistics) , coding (social sciences) , convergence (economics) , cognitive psychology , statistics , linguistics , mathematics , philosophy , economics , economic growth
School pupils (mean age 17 years) were classified as convergers or divergers on the basis of their performance on the AH5 Intelligence Test and the Uses of Objects test. They were presented with a set of concrete and abstract sentences, followed immediately by a forced‐choice recognition test. There was a significant interaction between abstractness‐concreteness and convergence‐divergence, in which the effect of the abstractness‐concreteness variable was highly significant for convergers, but was non‐significant for divergers. This interaction was attributed to the superior ability of divergers to discover those different interpretations of a single nominal stimulus held to be inherent in abstract, though not in concrete, sentences. In addition, some evidence against Paivio's (1971) dual‐coding model was presented.