For 90 college students, matched for SAT scores, there was differentiation of ability to identify correctly complex conjunctive concepts in a card-sorting task, as demonstrated by ability to learn the concepts to an errorless trial and to apply the newly formed concepts to other materials. Some Ss were able to learn the concepts to an errorless trial and to apply each concept to new sorts but were then unable to verbalize correctly those rules they had just employed. The same Ss who had previously learned an equivalent principle for sorting in one situation, then having tried unsuccessfully to verbalize the concept which they had just employed, were unable to apply the same principle in a new, equivalent situation.
References
1.
BrunerJ. S.GoodnowJ. J.AustinG. A.A study of thinking. New York: Wiley, 1956.
2.
DuncanC. P.Thinking: current experimental studies. New York: Lippincott, 1967.
3.
DunckerK.On problem solving. Psychol. Monogr., 1945, 58, No. 270.
4.
GoldsteinK.ScheererM.Abstract and concrete behavior: an experimental study and special test. Psychol. Monogr., 1941, 52, No. 2.
5.
HanfmannE.KasaninJ.A method for the study of concept formation. J. Psychol., 1937, 3, 221–240.
6.
HeidbrederE.Towards a dynamic theory of cognition. Psychol. Rev., 1945, 52, 122–146.
7.
HullC. L.Quantitative aspects of the evolution of concepts. Psychol. Monogr., 1920, 30, No. 123.
8.
OsgoodC. E.SuciG. J.TannenbaumJ. M.Measurement of meaning. Urbana, Ill.: Univer. of Illinois Press, 1957.
9.
ReedH. B.Factors influencing the learning and retention of concepts: I. The influence of set. J. exp. Psychol., 1946, 36, 71–87.
10.
SchwartzB. D.Certain relations between verbalization and concept formation. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Princeton Univer., 1948.
11.
SmokeK. L.An objective study of concept formation. Psychol. Monogr., 1932, 42, No. 4 (Whole No. 191).
12.
TrabasseT.Verification of conceptual rules. Proc. 75th Annu. Conven. APA, 1967, 2, 41–42. (Abstract)
13.
VigotskyL. A.Thought and language. New York: Wiley, 1962.
