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An Analysis of Learning Data Which Distinguishes Between Initial Preference and Learning Ability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Harold Gulliksen
Harold Gulliksen*
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
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Abstract

Several sets of learning data furnished by I. Krechevsky have been analyzed in terms of meaningful parameters of the learning curve, and the changes in the frequency distributions of these parameters with changes in the experimental conditions have been studied. One of the parameters represents the animal's initial preference for the light or dark, the other represents learning ability. The analysis shows that destruction of about ten or fifteen per cent. of the cortex, increases the animal's preference for the light and decreases the learning ability slightly. By ordinary methods of analysis, it is not possible to discover that both initial preference and learning ability have been changed by any given factor.

Type
Original Paper
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 7 , Issue 3 , September 1942 , pp. 171 - 194
Copyright
Copyright © 1942 The Psychometric Society

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Footnotes

*

The author wishes to acknowledge financial assistance from the Social Science Research Committee of the University of Chicago in the completion of this study.

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