Interpersonal Learning.

Interpersonal learning is conceptualized within the lens model framework developed by Brunswik and Hammond. The learner, the person being learned from, and the situation being learned about are described as interacting systems composed of surface elements and depth elements. The laws of a system are defined as the relations between its surface and its depth elements, while the consistency of a system is the extent to which the laws can be inferred from the directly observable surface elements. The knowledge achieved between two systems is shown to be a function of the matching of the laws of the two systems, the consistency of the two systems, and the context of information in which the systems interact. The proposed conceptualization and analysis of interpersonal learning are demonstrated in three experimental investigations. Experiment one examines the effects of varying the context of information and rule complexity the second experiment is entirely devoted to problems involving rule complexity, and the third involves relations between rule complexity and initial agreement among subjects. The results of these experiments, in general, show that simple linear subjects require interpersonal information from complex nonlinear subjects in order to learn to use a complex nonlinear rule. Subjects do not require interpersonal information in order to learn to use simple positive-linear rules. Author