{"pk":24600,"title":"Visual alignment promotes rapid learning of functional relations","subtitle":null,"abstract":"Learning a function from input-output pairs often follows exemplar or rule learning. Speed of exemplar learning and generality of rule learning were suggested to be promoted by visually aligning familiar and unfamiliar input-output exemplars. To test this, undergraduates (n=47) were randomly assigned to Full-, Partial- and No-Alignment groups. On each trial, students estimated fractions on number lines, and functions used to generate estimates were examined on 9 trial blocks. On pretest, estimates were (incorrectly) a linear function of denominators alone (Full 50%; Partial 50%; No 40%); on post-test, estimates were (correctly) a linear function of the whole fraction (88%; 44%; 47%). Virtually all change in the Full group occurred after training just two exemplars (75%). Also, regression to the denominator-only function differed across groups (0%; 38%; 33%). Finally, Full-Alignment group generalized to untrained problems more broadly than other groups. Findings demonstrated efficiency of visual alignment in function learning.","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[{"word":"Psychology; Concepts and categories; Learning; Representation; Computer-based experiment"}],"section":"Abstracts","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8144c0vz","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Yujia","middle_name":"","last_name":"Zhang","name_suffix":"","institution":"The Ohio State University","department":""},{"first_name":"John","middle_name":"","last_name":"Opfer","name_suffix":"","institution":"The Ohio State University","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"2024-01-01T18:00:00Z","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/24600/galley/17763/download/"}]}