—orcriticaldifferences—,,,itmeansthatinSituationAthelearnerlearnstodifferentiatebetweeninstancesornoninstances,,,thenperformanceinSituationBisafunctionofthedifferenceswithinSituationA, (1969) citedatransferstudycarriedoutbyVurpillotetal.(1966) inwhichitwasdemonstratedthatperceptuallearninginvolveslearningandtransferringdistinctivefeaturesthatseparateinstancesfromnoninstances (asopposedtolearningandtransferringfeaturesthattheinstanceshaveincommon).
Thisistrue,ofcourse, (duetosameness).
Thenextquestionwas,then,howcandifferentiationbelearned? ,,evenasingleappli-cationofunreinforcedcontrastcouldleadtorapiddifferentiation (Pavlov,1927,,1969).
's (1969) bookondifferentiationtheorybeginswithaquotefromthe19th-centuryBritishphilosopherandtheologian,JamesMartineau,thatexplainswellthedifferentiatingforceofcontrasts.
Whenaredivoryball,seenforthefirsttime,hasbeenwithdrawn,itwillleaveamentalrepresentationofitself,;now,andnotbefore,willanattributedetachitself,andthecolor,byforceofcontrast,,andthisnewdifferencewillbringtheformintonoticefromitsslumber,andthusthatwhichbeganbybeingsimplyanobjectcutoutfromthesurroundingscenebecomesforusfirstaredobject,thanaredroundobject,andsoon(Martineau,EssaysPhilosophicalandTheological,,1969).
,itdescribeswhatwemightcallretrospectivetransfer:,wecanlookattheeffectsinthereversedirection,,normayshehaveseparatedoutandnoticedthecolorofthewhiteballwithouthavingseentheredballjustbefore.
MotorLearning
