When an individual intakes information without proposing any hypothesis about them, their performance is facilitated when the first samples are of low-variance, and the subsequent samples are higher in their variance.
 
Less biased encoding, but generalization and categorization is more simple and automatic. 



Non-analytic Categorization and Information Order


When an individual is employing an analytic approach in categorizing samples, their performance is facilitated by the representativeness of samples of the category distribution. 

Only a few features of a given sample are taken into account and used to form hypotheses in aid of categorization and generalization. 


Analytic Categorization and Information Order


The variance of information samples is determined by how much difference and similarities the samples share with one another. 


New York University

The order in which information is presented can have an impact on an individual's way of analyzing and categorizing information. 


Information Order and Categorization


Elio, R., Anderson, J.R. The effects of information order and learning mode on schema abstraction. Memory & Cognition 12, 20–30 (1984). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196994

The effects of information order and learning mode on schema abstraction. 

Variance of Information Samples


Generalization of information depends on the unconscious recognition of similarities in a series of information. 


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