Acquisition of structured knowledge without instruction: The relational scheme

Graeme Halford, Janie Busby Grant

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Participants learned about a structure without explicit explanation, either by using relational schema induction (G. S. Halford, J. D. Bain, M. T. Maybery, & G. Andrews, 1998), which requires completion of instances of the structure, or by memorizing instances. Emergence of structured knowledge over trials was assessed by ability to map the structure to an isomorph and thereby to generate novel instances of the structure (the generativity test). Schema induction was found to be an effective way to induce acquisition of the structure, and the generativity test was a sensitive measure of structure acquisition, as indicated by converging measures. Memorization produced only low levels of structured knowledge. A conception of structured knowledge acquisition based on relational schema induction is proposed
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)586-603
Number of pages18
JournalJournal of Experimental Psychology
Volume33
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2007
Externally publishedYes

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