The Facilitation Effect Of Diagnostic Feature Property In Category Learning:A Study Of Practice Schedules

Categorization is a process in which individuals react identically towards similar objects and events,contributing to reduce the consumption of cognitive resource,simplify the cognitive process and promote individuals adapt constantly changing environment better.Category learning is exactly the study about this advanced cognitive activity.The critical issue in the studies of category learning is how individuals acquire and grasp new information about categories.A number of studies have found that diagnostic feature,the one appears in each stimulus of only one category among two or more,required higher attention weight of learners.Diagnostic feature consists of two properties: uniqueness(only appears in one category)and typicality(appears frequently).In realistic condition,not all objects and events possess diagnostic feature,but its properties are included in all kinds of category learning: sometimes one feature appears infrequently but only in one category;sometimes one feature appears frequently but in both two categories.Hence,it's worthwhile to explore the effect of two properties of diagnostic feature in category learning.Previous studies found that high typicality facilitate category learning more effectively and the facilitation effect of feature uniqueness in category learning among features with varied typicality and uniqueness.However,it's hard to interpret whether the feature uniqueness itself or the interaction of typicality and uniqueness resulted in facilitation.The importance of feature uniqueness as a feature property to effectively distinguish categories has not be confirmed and it can't be concluded which one affects superior in facilitation,feature typicality or uniqueness.Previous studies investigated the diagnostic feature property in random presentation,but different practice schedules(stimuli are presented in different orders)also affect category learning: blocked presentation facilitate individuals to focus on the similarity within category while interleaved presentation difference between categories.Therefore,the current study inquired the facilitation effect of diagnostic feature property in category learning based on the practice schedules.The Experiment 1 explored the facilitation effect of feature uniqueness in Rule-Based category learning;the Experiment 2 investigated the facilitation effect of feature typicality and uniqueness in Rule-Based andInformation-Integration category learning;the Experiment 3 further investigated the facilitation effect of feature typicality and uniqueness in Rule-Based and Information-Integration category learning based on practice schedules.The result showed as follows:(1)unique feature gained higher attention weight of learners;(2)in Rule-Based category learning,high-typical/non-unique dimension and low typical/unique dimension gained equivalent attention weight;in Information-Integration category learning,there were no significant difference among dimensions;(3)in Rule-Based category learning,high typical/non-unique dimension and low typical/unique dimension gained equivalent attention weight in blocked presentation;low typicality/unique dimension gained higher attention weight than low typicality/non-unique dimension in interleaved presentation;there were no significant difference among dimensions in different presentation of stimuli in Information-Integration category learning.In conclusion,the current study demonstrated that feature uniqueness facilitated category;in Rule-Based category learning,feature uniqueness and typicality enhance category learning equivalently in random and blocked presentation while feature uniqueness affected superior than feature typicality in interleaved presentation;in Information-Integration category learning,feature uniqueness and typicality failed to facilitate category learning in any kinds of presentation.