Memory for Intratrial Events in Concept Formation

Abstract

The major purpose of the present experiment was to examine expectations of hypothesis-testing theory, regarding memory for intratrial events, on a concept-identification task. The individual events under investigation were feedback, responses, hypotheses, and stimuli. According to hypothesis-testing theory, subjects should retain information regarding a winning hypothesis from one trial to the next. From introductory psychology 75 subjects participated in the experiment in which they were administered concept-formation problems. All variables were manipulated in a 4 × 4 × 3 within-subject design. Question type, number of intratrial events recalled, and percentage of trials with memory probe were the three factors. One major finding was the number of recall failures for the hypothesis stated on the previous trials. These errors occurred on problems with negative response trials, not with incorrect feedback, which contradicts predictions based on hypothesis-testing models. Over-all, the results support frequency theory over hypothesis-testing models with number of intratrial events and percentage of trials with probe shown to be important variables affecting the accuracy of memory.