Abstract

Two types of processes, controlled hypothesis testing and automatic frequency processing, have been posited to explain concept learning. The present study employed a concept-identification task to compare fifth-graders, college students, and elderly adults in their ability to test hypotheses and compile feature frequency information. College students proved superior in both their efficiency of selecting the correct hypothesis and their accuracy of recalling sampled hypotheses, and fifth-graders and elderly adults performed about the same on these measures of hypothesis-testing ability. Ability to estimate feature frequencies followed the same developmental pattern. The results support the view that hypothesis testing is an effortful, controlled process, but they contradict the assumption that frequency processing is automatic. © 1983, The psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.

Department(s)

Psychological Science

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

0090-5054

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2023 Springer, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jan 1983

Included in

Psychology Commons

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