Influence of prior knowledge on concept acquisition: Experimental and computational results

The inlluencc of the prior causal knowkd8c of subjeas on the rate of Iaminh the ate8oris formed, and the attributes attended to durin8 kamin8 is explored. Conjunctin comxpS IIC thought to be easier for subjects to learn than disjunctive concepts. Conditions M rctwned under which the oppmire asun. In particular, it is demonstrated that prior knowledlc an inlluena the rate of mncept learning and that the influence of prior causal knowledge an dominate the influence of the lc&al form. A computational model of this learning ti it praented. To represent the prior knowledge of the subjects, an extension to explanation-bPud learning is developed to deal with imprecise domain knowledge. It has been suggested (e.g.. Murphy & Medin, 1985; Paz-zani, Dyer, & Rowers, 1986; Schank, Collins, & Hunter, 1986) that a person’s prior knowledge influences the rate or accuracy of learning. In this article, I explore the influence of prior causal knowledge on the number of trials to learn a concept, the concepts formed, and the selection of attributes used to form hypothews