The inadvertent use of prior knowledge in a generative cognitive task
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 24, 2026

The Grid Learning Task: Examining the Effects of Overlap Type on New Learning Within Healthy Adult Participants
Published on: July 31, 2026
R L Marsh1, T B Ward, J D Landau
1Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens 30602-3013, USA. marsh@meme.psy.uga.edu
Abstract:
In four experiments with 332 participants, participants were asked to generate novel nonwords for English categories. When participants were shown examples embedded with regular orthographic structures, participants' nonwords tended to conform orthographically to the examples, despite instructions to avoid using features of the examples. The effect was found with immediate testing (Experiments 1) and delayed testing (Experiment 2). The effect was also found with arbitrary features (Experiments 1-4), as well as with naturally occurring orthographic regularities (Experiment 4). Participants had difficulty avoiding the use of this prior knowledge, despite being able to list the features they were asked to avoid (Experiment 3). The results are discussed in terms of the inadvertent use of prior knowledge in generative cognitive tasks.
Related Concept Videos
Hindsight Biases
Cognitive Learning
E. C. Tolman's theory of purposive behavior emphasizes that much behavior is goal-directed. He argued that to understand behavior, we must look at the entire sequence of actions leading to a goal. For instance, high school students study hard, not just due to past reinforcement but also to achieve the goal of getting into a good college.
Tolman introduced the idea that behavior is influenced by...
Purposive Learning
Implicit Memories
One key aspect of implicit...
The Availability Heuristic
Schemas