Experiment 02

PROCESS OF CONCEPT FORMATION

Problem Statement

Conduct an experiment to demonstrate the process of concept formation or concept

learning in the subject.

Introduction

For an experiment on concept, various types of learning materials are used for their
identification by the subject. Some of the materials may be objects, which can be placed in
groups having common characteristic, while others can be structures of objects to be presented
before the subject one by one for identifying their class. Yet another type of material may be
drawings or pictures of objects for the identification of their sets. In the process of identification,
the subject is supposed to classify the objects or structures or drawings of the objects in separate
groups on the basis of some common characteristics, while ignoring other characteristics which
are not common. For example, on the basis of size all the tall or large structure can be classified
in one group despite the differences in one color, brightness, shape etc., of the structures.

The words can be classified into four categories on the basis of common adjectives; they
are as under:

Fruit: Mango, guava, papaya, banana, orange.

Small: Mustard, sugar, ant, pin, sand.
Liquid: Petrol, water, blood, dew, milk.
Hard: Iron, silver, gold, marble, stone.

Meaning and Nature of Thinking: Thinking is a pattern of behavior that aims at finding
the solution to a problem. However, all the problem-solving behaviors do not essentially involve
the process of thinking. Some problems can be solved by simple overt activities which someone
can observe. Anderson (1980) argued that the activity of problem solving typically involves the
following three ingredients:

1. The individual’s behavior is goal directed, in the sense of attempting to reach a desired
end state.
 2. Reaching the goal or solution requires a sequence of mental processes, for example,
putting your foot on the zebra crossing on seeing a red light is a goal directed behavior, but a
single process doesn’t usually involve thinking.

3. The mental processes involved in the task should be cognitive rather than automatic.
The ingredient needs to be included to eliminate the routine sequence of behaviors, such as
dealing a pack of playing cards. According to Morgan and King (2002), ‘Thinking consists of the
cognitive rearrangement and manipulation of both information from the environment and
symbols stored in Long Term Memory (LTM)’.

Concept Information: In the process of thinking, images and symbols are used and
manipulated implicitly for finding a solution to a problem. Generally, images are used for
specific things, objects, situations, or being things or situation rather for a group of object things
or situations having common characteristics. Such symbols are called concepts. In other words,
concepts are mental classification of objects or events having common properties. Concepts are
verbal responses to the common properties of objects (Mohsin, 1988).

According to Islam (2012), a concept may be defined as an idea of understanding of what

a thing is. It is an abstraction of certain features from a stimulus situation. It is a collection of
ideas that are grouped together based on some common properties. Most important is that
concept allows us to recognize novel objects or events as an instance for a known category,
which in turn allows us to respond appropriately to be novel event (Hunt and Ellis, 2006).
Concept formation is process of isolating common characteristics of objects or events. Common
characteristics are those characteristics of the objects which are common in several, otherwise
similar objects. For example, roundness, hardness, etc., maybe some of the common feature of a
number of objects of diverse nature.

Hypothesis

Concept for common words would be formed clearly.

Variables

Independent variable: List of words to categorize.

Dependent variable: The speed with which the words were correctly classified.

Apparatus
 List of words prepared by the experimenter, stop watch paper pencil etc.

Experimenter’s details

Age:

Gender:

Qualification:

Subjects’ details

Age:

Gender:

Qualification:

Instructions

The following instructions were given to the subject: I will read out a list of 20 words one
by one. These words are names of 20 objects. After reading out each word you will be given 5
second to tell me the word that describes it. For the correct answer I will say “yes”, and “no” for
the incorrect answer. Please keep in mind all the words to be read out can be described by four
words only. Thus, all the 20 words can be placed in four categories. Try to discover the correct
description as fast as you can.

Procedure

After the necessary instructions each of the lists prepared by the experimenter was read out one
by one. The subject was given 5 seconds to describe a word as a substitute. After reading out
each word the subject response was collected. The word responded by the subject for describing
the class of particular word was noted in the response sheet only when the response was found
correct. The first word of the list was read out to the subject and his was recorded immediately
after reading out the word. Subject was also told that his answer was correct or not. Similarly, the
second word was read out and subject response was sought. In this way each word of the list read
out one by one and subjects’ response for each word was recorded. Each time the subject was
told whether his response was correct or incorrect. All the responses of subject were noted in
front of the word in the next column. In this way Trial No. 1 was completed. The trial continued
till the subject could attain the concept of each word. The subject’s introspective report was also
sought after the completion of the data collection work.

Introspective Report

The task was really difficult for me as I failed to understand the real purpose of the
exercise. Initially I was responding on the basis of guess, but most of the time my guess went
wrong. Then I started completing the requirement of the task. Even then I missed some of the
responses. Gradually I could understand that I had to classify those words into various categories
on the basis of some common characteristic and each category had to be given a common name.
Then the task become a little easier and I could manage to identify the class of each word after
several attempts.

Result

The results of the experiment are given in a tabular form on Table.

Conclusion

The results showed that the concepts for the dominating or common objects were formed
earlier than uncommon objects. The mean for the concept of fruit was found to be the largest,
followed by the mean for the liquid. The subject could easily identify the names of the fruits and
formed the concepts in the initial trials. Similarly, the names of liquid substance were also
quickly identified as liquid. Whereas, the subject was facing difficulty in identifying the names
of small objects. Many times, his responses were based on guess. On some of the occasions
functional fixedness was also noticed. Subject had to work hard in classifying small objects,
therefore, the mean for the concept of small was found to be 1.2 only. Similarly, the objects
under the category of hard concept were also difficult for the subject. The subject took many
trials in the identification of the concept of hard. The mean score for the concept of hard was also
smaller than then the concept of trait and liquid, as it was found to be 2.0 only. Thus, it can be
concluded that the attainment or formation of concepts is not only a gradual process, but also
depends on the dominance of the objects. It is because of that the subject could easily categorize
objects in the categories of fruits and liquid as fruit and liquid are very common objects.

List of Tables

Table # 01
 The subject’s responses in the form of correct or incorrect responses are given.

List of words 1 2 3 4 5
Mango Wrong Right Right Right Right
Petrol Wrong Wrong Right Right Right
Iron Wrong Wrong Right Right Right
Guava Wrong Wrong Right Right Right
Mustard Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong Right
Water Wrong Right Right Right Right
Sugar Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong Right
Silver Wrong Wrong Wrong Right Right
Banana Wrong Right Right Right Right
Blood Wrong Wrong Wrong Right Right
Stone Wrong Wrong Wrong Right Right
Ant Wrong Wrong Wrong Right Right
Marble Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong Right
Pin Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong Right
Papaya Wrong Right Right Right Right
Dew Wrong Wrong Wrong Right Right
Sand Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong Right
Gold Wrong Wrong Wrong Right Right
Milk Wrong Right Right Right Right
Orange Wrong Right Right Right Right

Table # 02

The result of the subject is represented below:

Concepts Frequency of correct responses Mean of the correct response

Fruit 19 3.8

Small 06 1.2

Liquid 15 3.0

Hard 10 2.0