OPTIMAL STIMULUS PRESENTATION STRATEGY FOR A STIMULUS SAMPLING MODEL OF LEARNING.

In a process that involves learning through the presentation of stimulus items in a sequence controlled by the experimenter or teacher, it is of interest to determine rules of presentation i.e., stimulus presentation strategies that maximize the expected level of achievement of the subjects. An N-trial experiment is considered in which, at each trial, a stimulus item is chosen for presentation from among a given set of items. The learning model used is based on the stimulus-sampling theory of learning. This paper treats the case of two stimulus items and derives the following among other results for this case 1 a proof of the optimality of a simple rule that essentially involves only the comparison of the values of the a posteriori probabilities that learning has been achieved for the stimulus items after each trial in the experiment 2 a division of the unit square representing initial values of the joint probability of being in a learned state for both items into regions of common optimal presentation strategies. Author