文章基本信息

标题：Temporal dynamics of categorization: forgetting as the basis of abstraction and generalization
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作者：Vlach, Haley A. ; Kalish, Charles W.
期刊名称：Frontiers in Psychology
电子版ISSN：1664-1078
出版年度：2014
卷号：5
页码：1-9
DOI：10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01021
出版社：Frontiers Media
摘要：Historically, models of categorization have focused on how learners track frequencies and co-occurrence information to abstract relevant category features for generalization. The current study takes a different approach by examining how the temporal dynamics of categorization affect abstraction and generalization. In the learning phase of the experiment, all relevant category features were presented an equal number of times across category exemplars. However, the relevant features were presented on one of two learning schedules: massed or interleaved. At a series of immediate and delayed tests, learners were asked to generalize to novel exemplars that contained massed features, interleaved features, or all novel features. The results of this experiment revealed that, at an immediate test, learners more readily generalized based upon features presented on a massed schedule. Conversely, at a delayed test, learners more readily generalized based upon features presented on an interleaved schedule, until information was no longer readily retrievable from memory. These findings suggest that forgetting and retrieval processes engendered by the temporal dynamics of learning are used as a basis of abstraction, implicating forgetting as a central mechanism of generalization.
关键词：Spacing Effect; forgetting; Memory; category learning; Categorization; Generalization (Psychology)