A major question for the study of learning and memory is how to tailor learning experiences to promote knowledge that generalizes to new situations. In two experiments, we used category learning as a representative domain to test two factors thought to influence the acquisition of conceptual knowledge: the number of training examples (set size)…

Learning to categorize perceptually similar stimuli can result in people becoming more sensitive to differences along perceptual dimensions that are relevant to category membership and/or less sensitive to equivalent differences along irrelevant perceptual dimensions. These effects of acquired distinctiveness and acquired equivalence may be caused…

Category learning is fundamental to cognition, but little is known about how it proceeds in real-world environments when learners do not have instructions to search for category-relevant information, do not make overt category decisions, and do not experience direct feedback. Prior research demonstrates that listeners can acquire task-irrelevant…

Language is infinitely productive because syntax defines dependencies between grammatical categories of words and constituents, so there is interchangeability of these words and constituents within syntactic structures. Previous laboratory-based studies of language learning have shown that complex language structures like hierarchical center…

How strongly a verb is associated with a construction plays a crucial role in the learning of argument structure constructions. We examined the effect of verb-construction association strength on second language (L2) constructional generalization by analysing L2 learners' production and comprehension of two complex constructions (i.e. ditransitive…

Although the use of technology for pragmatics instruction has attracted significant attention from scholars, the number of studies regarding the impact of self-access materials to this end is limited. Nearpod is a useful cloud-based application to support self-paced learning. This paper aims to probe the effect of learning through Nearpod on EFL…

Fluency-based strategies such as Say All Fast a Minute Each Day Shuffled (SAFMEDS) effectively promote fluent responding (i.e., high rate and accuracy). It is possible, however, that the stimulus control developed through these activities inhibits stimulus generalization. We investigated this concern in a two-part study with college students.…

The purpose of this paper is to describe (a) multivariable calculus students' meanings for the domain and range of single and multivariable functions and (b) how they generalize their meanings for domain and range from single-variable to multivariable functions. We first describe how students think about domain and range of multivariable functions…

Despite many years of investigation into implicit learning in nonlinguistic domains, the potential for implicit learning to deliver the kinds of generalizations that underlie natural language competence remains unclear. In a series of experiments, we investigated implicit learning of the semantic preferences of novel verbs, specifically, whether…

This paper aims to contribute to the current debate on British Studies from the perspective of eight international students attending a British Studies module in part completion of a foundation/access programme in the UK. Drawing on three sets of in-depth student interviews and 15 classroom observations used to triangulate findings, the analysis…

A reminding-based generalization view of category learning was studied in 4 experiments involving a total of 247 college students. Experiments demonstrated that categorization by reminding can affect what is learned about the category and later categorization performance. Implications of the results for category learning are discussed. (SLD)

Web-based financial commentary, in which experts routinely express market-related thought processes, is proposed as a means for college students to learn vicariously about financial markets. Undergraduate business school students from a regional university were exposed to expert market commentary from a single financial Web site for a 6-week…