%0 Journal Article
%T Fluid Abilities and Rule Learning: Patterning and Biconditional Discriminations
%A A. G. Baker
%A Elsa Yu
%A Irina Baetu
%A Nicholas R. Burns
%J -
%D 2018
%R https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence6010007
%X Abstract Previous experience with discrimination problems that can only be solved by learning about stimulus configurations enhances performance on new configural discriminations. Some of these effects can be explained by a shift toward increased configural processing (learning about combinations of cues rather than about individual elements), or by a tendency to generalize a learned rule to a new training set. We investigated whether fluid abilities influence the extent that previous experience with configural discriminations improves performance on subsequent discriminations. In Experiments 1 and 2 we used patterning discriminations that could be solved by applying a simple rule, whereas in Experiment 3 we used biconditional discriminations that could not be solved using a rule. Fluid abilities predicted the improvement on the second training set in all experiments, including Experiment 3 in which rule-based generalization could not explain the improvement on the second discrimination. This supports the idea that fluid abilities contribute to performance by inducing a shift toward configural processing rather than rule-based generalization. However, fluid abilities also predicted performance on a rule-based transfer test in Experiment 2. Taken together, these results suggest that fluid abilities contribute to both a flexible shift toward configural processing and to rule-based generalization. View Full-Tex
%K associative learning
%K fluid abilities
%K positive and negative patterning
%K biconditional discrimination
%K configural processing
%K rule-based generalization
%U https://www.mdpi.com/2079-3200/6/1/7