pryor@ils.nwu.edu (Louise Pryor) (02/09/90)
The claim is often made in AI case-based reasoning circles that it is easier to remember a specific case than a general rule. In particular, the claim appears to be made that a case can be learnt from one presentation, whereas an abstract rule may take many presentations to reach the same recall facility. Does anyone know of any psychological work that has been done on this? I am looking for references to experiments that either support or are at variance with this claim for a paper I am writing. There is one experiment I have heard of where people found it easier to solve a problem when the instructions were given in terms of a specific example rather than in an abstract form. Does anyone have a reference for this? Please email responses to pryor@ils.nwu.edu Thanks Louise