The concreteness of attributes in concept learning strategies

Ss were presented with conjunctive concept learning tasks using geometric stimuh in two experiments and using combinations of abstract characteristics in two other experiments. Evidence indicated that the conjunctive hypotheses for geometric stimuli were not mediated by component values but were sampled as unitized wholes. In contrast, conjunctive hypotheses for abstract attributes were sampled via independent combinations of component values. The differential processing was not found to be associated with the variation of stimuli on the verbal-nonverbal dimension.