For a hard inference question involving an experiment, track which results generalize beyond the original material and which do not. Prefer the conclusion that explains differences between conditions and measurements without claiming that the evidence proves more than it actually does.
Hints
- Hint 1
Focus on transfer
Consider whether each observed effect extended to material that participants had not encountered during exposure.
- Hint 2
Compare the two stages
Identify what changed after participants were informed that a rule existed and which measurement did not change in the same way.
- Hint 3
Distinguish kinds of learning
Ask whether recognizing previously encountered material necessarily demonstrates knowledge of a pattern that can be applied to new material.
Step-by-step
- Step 1
Interpret the initial eye-tracking result
Participants looked sooner toward the correct response only when a test string reused exact sequences from the exposure phase. This limited transfer is evidence of memory for familiar material, not clear evidence that participants had inferred a general rule.
- Step 2
Examine what changed after the instruction
Once participants were told that a rule existed, their classifications improved even for strings containing entirely new sequences. That broader transfer suggests that participants began deliberately searching for or applying the hidden pattern.
- Step 3
Account for the difference between measures
The anticipatory eye movements did not show the same improvement on the new sequences. Therefore, the initial eye-movement effect and the later classifications likely reflected different kinds of processing rather than the same previously acquired rule knowledge.