| Abstract: | In a first stage of training, participants learned to associate four visual cues (two different colors and two different shapes)
with verbal labels. For Group S, one label was applied to both colors and another to both shapes; for Group D, one label was
applied to one color and one shape, and the other label to the other cues. When subsequently required to learn a task in which
a given motor response was required to one of the colors and one of the shapes, and a different response to the other color
and the other shape, Group D learned more readily than Group S. The task was designed so that the associations formed during
the first stage of training could not generate differential transfer to the second stage. The results are consistent, however,
with the proposal that training in which similar cues are followed by different outcomes will engage a learning process that
boosts the attention paid to features that distinguish these cues. |
