Learning Sets (Learning to Learn)

[Ready for Fall 2026]

Modified: 2026-08-03 11:39 AM CDST

• A more complex form of learning is learning to learn, or learning sets.
• Learning sets are found in many places.
  • One example is taking a test.
  • Many things contribute to success in test taking:
    • studying,
    • knowing the type of test items in advance
    • sleeping well the night before
• The question is, how does one acquire a set of successful test-taking behaviors?
  • By taking lots of tests!
    • Over time, test takers will, by trial and error, develop an array of successful behaviors to engage in before a test.
    • Conversely, they will also develop another array of behaviors NOT to engage in before a test.
  • So learning sets develop with experience.

• Sports are another place where learning sets develop routinely.
  • Sportscasters always talk about teams and players that "...have been there before."
  • Because of their experience, they are less likely to be surprised by new events in a big game.
    • So, game experience and specifically, game experience in particular situations :
      • the Final Four,
      • the World Series
      • the Super Bowl
  • seems to affect performance positively in similar games subsequently.
• Harlow studied learning sets experimentally with rhesus monkeys in the WGTA, the Wisconsin General Test Apparatus.
  • In the WGTA, monkeys are presented with pairs of stimuli six times.
  • Under one of the stimuli is a reinforcer (Froot Loops are a monkey favorite).
  • Then the monkey is allowed to knock away one of the stimuli.
  • If the correct one is displaced, it gets the reinforcer; if not, the tray is quickly withdrawn.
  • The interesting results in the WGTA occur when one looks at the performance of experienced versus inexperienced subjects.
  • Highly experienced subjects are nearly always correct from the second trial on, while inexperienced subjects hover around a chance level (e.g., 50%).
  • Just like test-takers and athletes, the experienced monkeys had learned the situation. They knew when to stay and when to switch, even with stimuli they had never seen before.