ABSTRACTION OF COVARIATIONS IN INCIDENTAL-LEARNING AND COVARIATION BIAS

Experiment 1 was devised to distinguish, in a given set of features co mposing drawn robots, those whose variations were related a priori for participants from those whose variations were a priori independent. I n Expt 2, correlations were experimentally induced between a priori-re lated features for one group of participants (pre-primed up), and betw een a priori-independent features for another group (arbitrary group), in incidental learning conditions. A subsequent transfer phase reveal ed that participants' performances were sensitive to experimentally in duced correlations in both groups. However, only the performances of t he pre-primed group accurately matched the predictions of a statistica l model devised by It. Richardson (e.g. Richardson & Carthy, 1990), po stulating the acquisition of genuine knowledge of the correlational st ructure. Participants' sensitivity to arbitrary correlations appeared to be a by-product of the memory of specific study exemplars. These re sults demand the reinterpretation of some prior experimental evidence for covariation abstraction, and more generally, are consonant with a current view of implicit learning which emphasizes the role of specifi c prior episodes in complex learning situations.