Selby Evans - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Selby Evans
Psychonomic science, Dec 1, 1969
Psychological Bulletin, Mar 1, 1973
Replies to comments by D. A. Sprott on the current author's original article . The original ... more Replies to comments by D. A. Sprott on the current author's original article . The original purpose of the illustration was to show that analysis of covariance could leave a statistically significant residual treatment effect even though there was no treatment effect in the variate not predictable from the covariate. As to our statement that there is a "significant effect even when none was present," the context of the paragraph should make it clear that the word none refers to "no treatment effect in the variate not predictable from the covariate."
Psychonomic science, Aug 1, 1966
With knowledge of results Ss learned to distinguish between the presence and the absence of a sch... more With knowledge of results Ss learned to distinguish between the presence and the absence of a schema and to distinguish between different schemata. Since a schema may be regarded as a statistical concept, the results also show that humans readily learn statistical concepts.
Behavior Research Methods, May 1, 1970
Journal of experimental psychology, 1967
Recent experiments have shown that the use of mnemonics or coding procedures is an important vari... more Recent experiments have shown that the use of mnemonics or coding procedures is an important variable in the study of retention. 2 components of the coding process are discussed-encoding and decoding. Results indicate that coding facilitated retention for Ss who had 1 or 2 alternative decodings; Ss with S alternative decodings recalled no more trigrams than did the control Ss with no coding instructions. Results were interpreted in terms of concepts from information theory. It was found that the percentage of trigrams recalled was a decreasing function of the amount of uncertainty associated with decoding.
Psychonomic science, Apr 1, 1966
Ss, reproducing from memory patterns which had a schema, performed better when pre trained with p... more Ss, reproducing from memory patterns which had a schema, performed better when pre trained with patterns having other schemata than when pre trained with patterns having no schema. Performance also improved within each block of patterns having the same schema. Neither type of improvement was contingent on knowledge of results.
Psychological Reports, Apr 1, 1967
The interaction paradigm, frequently used as a test of Hull vs Spence, is held to be biased again... more The interaction paradigm, frequently used as a test of Hull vs Spence, is held to be biased against Hull for several reasons: (1) Black (1965) has demonstrated that Spence could account for either outcome. (2) The probability of rejecting Hull is not controlled. (3) The 2 × 2 design minimizes the chances of finding for Hull. (4) One of Hull's postulates is disregarded. A suggestion is made for a better design to study the pertinent empirical relations
A promising measure of learning ability has emerged. from extensive research on schema theory: th... more A promising measure of learning ability has emerged. from extensive research on schema theory: the Schematic Concept Formation (SCF) Test. Experimental evidence has already demonstrated substantial individual differences in SCF performance for third and fourth graders and college students. Because SCF depends on the learning of relatively unfamiliar patterns rather than upon measurement of previous learning, it might be utilized to tap a few of the more important cognitive abilities in ways not presently available. A measure of SCF ability which could be shown to be substantially unrelated to cultural background or educational level, and which had some power to predict learning ability, would be socially relevant and extremely useful in both educational and industrial settings. In order to assess the potential utility in this context, two studies were conducted, a pilot study and a main study. The purpose of the pilot study was primarily to refine the SCF test for subsequent use; the purpose of the main study was t:o determine the predictive power of the test in a remedial training program. The results indicate that SCF test does have some potential utility as a measure of cognitive aptitude in disadvantaged students, where such aptitudes are defined as aptitudes bearing on success in a remedial training program.
Presented with a set of patterns containing two schemadefined categories, Ss were asked to sort t... more Presented with a set of patterns containing two schemadefined categories, Ss were asked to sort the patterns into two categories. No instructions about relevant attributes were given, and no feedback was provided. A significant number of Ss used the schema-defined categories in sorting. Schematic concept formation (SCF) has been proposed as a construct of schema theory (Evans, 1967a). SCF was there defined as the development of the ability to assign objects to their corresponding schema families on the basis of information derived from perceiving the objects, without any other source of information and without prior familization with the relevant schemata. (In this context, a schema is a rule describing a prototype, and a schema family is a population of objects which may be efficiently described in terms of deviations from the prototype.) Clearly SCF requires demonstration before it can claim status as a construct of schema theory. An experiment by Shipstone (1960) showed that in a free sorting task, in which Ss were asked to sort instances from several finite-state grammars, the Ss tended to use the generating grammars as the basis of sorting. But these grammars were deterministic; schema theory requires sorting competence with instances which incorporate deviations from the schema. Edmonds, Mueller, & Evans (1966) used such instances and showed that, without KR, schema-defined categories exerted an increasing influence on judgments of similarity and difference. Although this result supports the SCF hypothesis, the experiment does not explicitly show category formation. We here report research designed specifically to show that Ss could and would use schema-defined categories in a free sorting task, i.e., a task which required them to sort patterns into categories without instruction about relevant attributes and without knowledge of results. Stimuli The basic requirement for demonstrating SCF is a capability for introdUCing arbitrarily defined and unfamiliar schemata into populations of patterns in such a way that the schema can be manipulated (that is, one schema can be substituted for another) without altering other potentially relevant variables. The V ARGUS 7 pattern generating system (Evans, 1967b) was designed to meet that objective. The system produces each pattern by generating a segment of a specialized Markov process and mapping its elements into column heights to construct a histoform pattern. The schema inheres in a set of transitional probabilities distributed so that each column height has a most probable successor. The set of most probable successors defines
Psychonomic science, Aug 1, 1969
contemporary Psychology, Aug 1, 1974
Behavior Research Methods Instruments & Computers, Sep 1, 1984
This report describes an APL system for file-oriented univariate analysis, correlation, and regre... more This report describes an APL system for file-oriented univariate analysis, correlation, and regression analysis. The correlation and regression processes permit analyses of an unlimited number of cases, if the cases are arranged in tables small enough to be processed one at a time in a workspace. Support functions are also given for a menu-based processing system designed to support a broad range of analyses. The functions offer features such as subset selection, data transformation, and exclusion of invalid items.
Contemporary Educational Psychology, Jul 1, 1981
Skip Navigation. Your session will time out in 5 minutes. To continue working, click OK. Tip: Sav... more Skip Navigation. Your session will time out in 5 minutes. To continue working, click OK. Tip: Save your search strategies for future use at Recent Searches. Your APA PsycNET session timed out because it was inactive for 30 minutes. ...
Behavior Research Methods, Sep 1, 1982
APL functions to support preparation of data files are presented: a function to manage the entry ... more APL functions to support preparation of data files are presented: a function to manage the entry of raw data, functions to display the entered data in formats convenient for checking, a function to support correction of errors, a function to organize the data into tables and file them, and a user interface function that provides menu selection of the data preparation functions. General-purpose support functions to assist in file use and in menu selection are also provided.
Systems research and behavioral science, Sep 1, 1968
PsycEXTRA Dataset, 1971
Abstract : Typical pattern-recognition processes can be separated into several components, some o... more Abstract : Typical pattern-recognition processes can be separated into several components, some of which may be more readily automated than others. Humans seem to be particularly suited for the earlier parts of processing, such as delineating a part of the image to be recognized as a single object and adaptively selecting an effective feature space for a given task context. On the other hand, optimal decision processes--which give due weight to prior probabilities, take into account the differential costs of errors, and utilize efficient statistical classification procedures -- can now be automated on the basis of an already well developed body of knowledge. They may be better handled by machines than by men. Recent work suggests that a reasonable model for human pattern recognition can usefully incorporate processes such as mapping an unknown pattern into a subjective feature space and classifying it on the basis of its location in that space. In terms of this model and of the above considerations, the best point at which to tap into the human pattern recognition process may well be at the feature-space level rather than at the classification level. The paper proposes a method for relating this subjective feature to an objective feature space of a machine so that a human could serve as preprocesser and feature analyzer while the machine could carry out the statistical classification processes. (Author)
Psychonomic science, Dec 1, 1969
Psychological Bulletin, Mar 1, 1973
Replies to comments by D. A. Sprott on the current author's original article . The original ... more Replies to comments by D. A. Sprott on the current author's original article . The original purpose of the illustration was to show that analysis of covariance could leave a statistically significant residual treatment effect even though there was no treatment effect in the variate not predictable from the covariate. As to our statement that there is a "significant effect even when none was present," the context of the paragraph should make it clear that the word none refers to "no treatment effect in the variate not predictable from the covariate."
Psychonomic science, Aug 1, 1966
With knowledge of results Ss learned to distinguish between the presence and the absence of a sch... more With knowledge of results Ss learned to distinguish between the presence and the absence of a schema and to distinguish between different schemata. Since a schema may be regarded as a statistical concept, the results also show that humans readily learn statistical concepts.
Behavior Research Methods, May 1, 1970
Journal of experimental psychology, 1967
Recent experiments have shown that the use of mnemonics or coding procedures is an important vari... more Recent experiments have shown that the use of mnemonics or coding procedures is an important variable in the study of retention. 2 components of the coding process are discussed-encoding and decoding. Results indicate that coding facilitated retention for Ss who had 1 or 2 alternative decodings; Ss with S alternative decodings recalled no more trigrams than did the control Ss with no coding instructions. Results were interpreted in terms of concepts from information theory. It was found that the percentage of trigrams recalled was a decreasing function of the amount of uncertainty associated with decoding.
Psychonomic science, Apr 1, 1966
Ss, reproducing from memory patterns which had a schema, performed better when pre trained with p... more Ss, reproducing from memory patterns which had a schema, performed better when pre trained with patterns having other schemata than when pre trained with patterns having no schema. Performance also improved within each block of patterns having the same schema. Neither type of improvement was contingent on knowledge of results.
Psychological Reports, Apr 1, 1967
The interaction paradigm, frequently used as a test of Hull vs Spence, is held to be biased again... more The interaction paradigm, frequently used as a test of Hull vs Spence, is held to be biased against Hull for several reasons: (1) Black (1965) has demonstrated that Spence could account for either outcome. (2) The probability of rejecting Hull is not controlled. (3) The 2 × 2 design minimizes the chances of finding for Hull. (4) One of Hull's postulates is disregarded. A suggestion is made for a better design to study the pertinent empirical relations
A promising measure of learning ability has emerged. from extensive research on schema theory: th... more A promising measure of learning ability has emerged. from extensive research on schema theory: the Schematic Concept Formation (SCF) Test. Experimental evidence has already demonstrated substantial individual differences in SCF performance for third and fourth graders and college students. Because SCF depends on the learning of relatively unfamiliar patterns rather than upon measurement of previous learning, it might be utilized to tap a few of the more important cognitive abilities in ways not presently available. A measure of SCF ability which could be shown to be substantially unrelated to cultural background or educational level, and which had some power to predict learning ability, would be socially relevant and extremely useful in both educational and industrial settings. In order to assess the potential utility in this context, two studies were conducted, a pilot study and a main study. The purpose of the pilot study was primarily to refine the SCF test for subsequent use; the purpose of the main study was t:o determine the predictive power of the test in a remedial training program. The results indicate that SCF test does have some potential utility as a measure of cognitive aptitude in disadvantaged students, where such aptitudes are defined as aptitudes bearing on success in a remedial training program.
Presented with a set of patterns containing two schemadefined categories, Ss were asked to sort t... more Presented with a set of patterns containing two schemadefined categories, Ss were asked to sort the patterns into two categories. No instructions about relevant attributes were given, and no feedback was provided. A significant number of Ss used the schema-defined categories in sorting. Schematic concept formation (SCF) has been proposed as a construct of schema theory (Evans, 1967a). SCF was there defined as the development of the ability to assign objects to their corresponding schema families on the basis of information derived from perceiving the objects, without any other source of information and without prior familization with the relevant schemata. (In this context, a schema is a rule describing a prototype, and a schema family is a population of objects which may be efficiently described in terms of deviations from the prototype.) Clearly SCF requires demonstration before it can claim status as a construct of schema theory. An experiment by Shipstone (1960) showed that in a free sorting task, in which Ss were asked to sort instances from several finite-state grammars, the Ss tended to use the generating grammars as the basis of sorting. But these grammars were deterministic; schema theory requires sorting competence with instances which incorporate deviations from the schema. Edmonds, Mueller, & Evans (1966) used such instances and showed that, without KR, schema-defined categories exerted an increasing influence on judgments of similarity and difference. Although this result supports the SCF hypothesis, the experiment does not explicitly show category formation. We here report research designed specifically to show that Ss could and would use schema-defined categories in a free sorting task, i.e., a task which required them to sort patterns into categories without instruction about relevant attributes and without knowledge of results. Stimuli The basic requirement for demonstrating SCF is a capability for introdUCing arbitrarily defined and unfamiliar schemata into populations of patterns in such a way that the schema can be manipulated (that is, one schema can be substituted for another) without altering other potentially relevant variables. The V ARGUS 7 pattern generating system (Evans, 1967b) was designed to meet that objective. The system produces each pattern by generating a segment of a specialized Markov process and mapping its elements into column heights to construct a histoform pattern. The schema inheres in a set of transitional probabilities distributed so that each column height has a most probable successor. The set of most probable successors defines
Psychonomic science, Aug 1, 1969
contemporary Psychology, Aug 1, 1974
Behavior Research Methods Instruments & Computers, Sep 1, 1984
This report describes an APL system for file-oriented univariate analysis, correlation, and regre... more This report describes an APL system for file-oriented univariate analysis, correlation, and regression analysis. The correlation and regression processes permit analyses of an unlimited number of cases, if the cases are arranged in tables small enough to be processed one at a time in a workspace. Support functions are also given for a menu-based processing system designed to support a broad range of analyses. The functions offer features such as subset selection, data transformation, and exclusion of invalid items.
Contemporary Educational Psychology, Jul 1, 1981
Skip Navigation. Your session will time out in 5 minutes. To continue working, click OK. Tip: Sav... more Skip Navigation. Your session will time out in 5 minutes. To continue working, click OK. Tip: Save your search strategies for future use at Recent Searches. Your APA PsycNET session timed out because it was inactive for 30 minutes. ...
Behavior Research Methods, Sep 1, 1982
APL functions to support preparation of data files are presented: a function to manage the entry ... more APL functions to support preparation of data files are presented: a function to manage the entry of raw data, functions to display the entered data in formats convenient for checking, a function to support correction of errors, a function to organize the data into tables and file them, and a user interface function that provides menu selection of the data preparation functions. General-purpose support functions to assist in file use and in menu selection are also provided.
Systems research and behavioral science, Sep 1, 1968
PsycEXTRA Dataset, 1971
Abstract : Typical pattern-recognition processes can be separated into several components, some o... more Abstract : Typical pattern-recognition processes can be separated into several components, some of which may be more readily automated than others. Humans seem to be particularly suited for the earlier parts of processing, such as delineating a part of the image to be recognized as a single object and adaptively selecting an effective feature space for a given task context. On the other hand, optimal decision processes--which give due weight to prior probabilities, take into account the differential costs of errors, and utilize efficient statistical classification procedures -- can now be automated on the basis of an already well developed body of knowledge. They may be better handled by machines than by men. Recent work suggests that a reasonable model for human pattern recognition can usefully incorporate processes such as mapping an unknown pattern into a subjective feature space and classifying it on the basis of its location in that space. In terms of this model and of the above considerations, the best point at which to tap into the human pattern recognition process may well be at the feature-space level rather than at the classification level. The paper proposes a method for relating this subjective feature to an objective feature space of a machine so that a human could serve as preprocesser and feature analyzer while the machine could carry out the statistical classification processes. (Author)