Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 2020 Jul;73(7):983-1003. doi: 10.1177/1747021820915151. Epub 2020 Apr 28.
When people learn perceptual categories, if one feature makes it easy to determine the category membership, learning about other features can be reduced. In three experiments, we asked whether this cue competition effect could be fully eradicated with simple instructions. For this purpose, in a pilot experiment, we adapted a classical overshadowing paradigm into a human category learning task. Unlike previous reports, we demonstrate a robust cue competition effect with human learners. In Experiments 1 and 2, we created a new warning condition that aimed at eradicating the cue competition effect through top-down instructions. With a medium-size overshadowing effect, Experiment 1 shows a weak mitigation of the overshadowing effect. We replaced the stimuli in Experiment 2 to obtain a larger overshadowing effect and showed a larger warning effect. Nevertheless, the overshadowing effect could not be fully eradicated. These experiments suggest that cue competition effects can be a stubborn roadblock in human category learning. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
当人们学习感知类别时，如果一个特征使得确定类别成员变得容易，那么学习其他特征的难度就会降低。在三个实验中，我们探讨了通过简单的指令是否可以完全消除这种线索竞争效应。为此，在一个初步实验中，我们将经典的掩蔽范式改编成人类类别学习任务。与之前的报告不同，我们用人类学习者证明了一种强大的线索竞争效应。在实验 1 和实验 2 中，我们创建了一个新的警告条件，旨在通过自上而下的指令消除线索竞争效应。尽管掩蔽效应的大小适中，但实验 1 表明，对掩蔽效应的缓解作用较弱。我们在实验 2 中更换了刺激物，以获得更大的掩蔽效应，并显示出更大的警告效应。然而，掩蔽效应不能完全消除。这些实验表明，线索竞争效应可能是人类类别学习中的一个顽固障碍。讨论了理论和实际意义。
