Effects of directional and neutral category labels in bidimensional rule-learning problems

In bidimensional concept problems, the distinction between primary and complementary rule forms is, in some sense, a function of the directional nature of the sorting category labels. Primary rules are those rules which assign the TT class to the "positive" category. Complementary rule forms are obtained by reversing these category assignments. Instead of directional labels, neutral labels can be used. Reversing these labels creates no fundamental change in the solution of the problem. The present experiment investigates the effect of directional and neutral category labels in a design which incorporates all 12 problems defined by the combination of directional and neutral labels. Significant effects of labels on performance were obtained. Implications of these effects for hypotheses advanced by Seggie (1969), Peters and Denny (1971), and Bourne and Guy (1968) are discussed.