Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

1978

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Abstract

Prototype abstraction and specific representations were examined using two acquisition procedures (paired-associate and concept formation) for concept members generated by applying one of two distortion rules (form preserving and form destroying) to eight-dot base patterns. One distortion rule maximized the configurational similarity between concept members and minimized their elemental similarity (form preserving). The other maximized the elemental similarity between concept members and minimized their configurational similarity (form destroying). Either immediately following acquisition or after a two-week delay, subjects were given a classification test which included the concept members learned during acquisition and novel members of the concepts. Evidence for prototype abstraction was found only for form preserving concepts. This result was interpreted as evidence for the configurational nature of a prototypical representation. Evidence for long-term retention of specific representations was found only for form destroying concepts. This result was explained by a model involving a network of partially overlapping features.

Extent

65 p.

Comments

FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1978.|Charles E. Schmidt College of Science|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Identifier

FADT13941

Format

pdf

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