@inproceedings{9a1dc75063934518ba413ad67b6192e3,
title = "Effects of Explanation and Comparison on Category Learning",
abstract = "Generating explanations and making comparisons have both been shown to improve learning. While each process has been studied individually, the relationship between explanation and comparison is not well understood. Three experiments evaluated the effectiveness of explanation and comparison prompts in learning novel categories. In Experiment 1, participants explained items' category membership, performed pairwise comparisons between items (listed similarities and differences), did both, or did a control task. The explanation task increased the discovery of rules underlying category membership; however, the comparison task decreased rule discovery. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that (1) comparing all four category exemplars was more effective than either within-category or between-category pairwise comparisons, and that (2) “explain” participants reported higher levels of both spontaneous explanation and comparison than “compare” participants. This work provides insights into when explanation and comparison are most effective, and how these processes can work together to maximize learning.",
keywords = "Explanation, categorization, comparison, learning",
author = "Edwards, {Brian J.} and Williams, {Joseph J.} and Tania Lombrozo",
note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} CogSci 2013.All rights reserved.; 35th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society - Cooperative Minds: Social Interaction and Group Dynamics, CogSci 2013 ; Conference date: 31-07-2013 Through 03-08-2013",
year = "2013",
language = "English (US)",
series = "Cooperative Minds: Social Interaction and Group Dynamics - Proceedings of the 35th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2013",
publisher = "The Cognitive Science Society",
pages = "406--411",
editor = "Markus Knauff and Natalie Sebanz and Michael Pauen and Ipke Wachsmuth",
booktitle = "Cooperative Minds",
}