Instructions and Labels in a Concept-Attainment Task

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Abstract
72 college students were to attain a concept from slides that showed geometric figures made up of bi-valued attributes. Specific instructions to attain a concept resulted in significantly better performance than instructions which merely indicated the attributes. A meaningful label attached to each figure resulted in better concept attainment than a nonsense label. It was theorized that both the instructions and meaningful label initiated conceptual activity and facilitated the accurate categorization in instances.