Discriminative contrast and the role of category organization on category learning

Babineau, Addison

Publication

Discriminative contrast and the role of category organization on category learning

Babineau, Addison

Date

2023-05-04

Abstract

Learning to classify information into concepts and categories is an essential component to educational success. However, learning to correctly classify examples into a given category can be challenging, particularly when learning STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, & Math) categories. Two factors that may impact STEAM category learning are category organization and study order. For example, when learning geological categories, the information may be organized into basic categories such as igneous and metamorphic rocks; or the information may be organized into subcategories such as granite and peridotite (which are types of igneous rocks). When studying either subcategories or basic categories, students may decide to study in blocks, such that a student would study several examples from the same category in a row; or they could study the categories in an interleaved order, such that the categories are mixed together. The discriminative contrast hypothesis suggests that the study order most beneficial to learning may be contingent to category organization. Thus, the goal of the present dissertation was to systematically evaluate the impact of study order and category organization from the lens of the discriminative contrast hypothesis. Across a Pilot experiment and two high-powered experiments, study order did not significantly influence classification performance when learning most geological categories. However, interleaving categories during learning was beneficial to novel classification performance for students who learned basic categories with many exemplars. Whereas study order did not impact classification performance for most groups, category structure did impact classification performance. Specifically, students who learned to classify geological subcategories performed significantly better on the classification tests than did students who learned basic geological categories. The present results are inconsistent with the discriminative contrast hypothesis and indicate a nuanced context in which study order influences STEAM category learning.