Asymmetric transfer of prototype information between vision and audition

Examined specific and nonspecific transfer of pattern class concept information between vision and audition. In Exp I, 75 undergraduates were evenly divided into 4 experimental groups and 1 control group. Experimental Ss learned visually or auditorily to distinguish between 2 pattern classes that were either the same as or different from the test classes. All Ss were then tested on the auditory classification of 50 patterns. Specific intramodal and cross-modal transfer was noted; Ss trained visually and auditorily on the test classes were equivalent in performance and more accurate than untrained controls. In Exp II, the training of Exp I was repeated with the same number of Ss, but Ss were tested visually. There was no evidence of auditory-to-visual transfer but some suggestion of nonspecific transfer within the visual modality. The asymmetry of transfer is discussed in terms of the modality into which patterns are most likely translated for the cross-modal tasks and in terms of the quality of prototype formation with visual vs auditory patterns. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).