Strategies and Learning Set in Concept Attainment

Abstract

Thirty-six Ss solved six concept attainment problems. An objective rational procedure was developed for identifying the strategies that Ss employ in concept attainment tasks. Total-card-choices and time-to-criterion were found to show evidence of learning set. Further, it was found that Ss by and large utilized low risk strategies quite consistently, and when they did change them, the direction of change was from risky to less risky. There was also some evidence for a relationship between performance variables and strategy utilization.