Abstract: Relational category means that identification of category is determined by a common relation structure. People are more inclined to use indirect means to learn category knowledge in daily life, such as referential communication. The indirect category learning means that learners interact with their objects and learn category knowledge indirectly.this study designed three experimental tasks (functional prediction task, liberal classification task and dimensions selection task) to explore the influence of the relational complexity upon selective attention during the indirect learning of relational category. The study designed three kinds of experimental materials.The total participants are 216 undergraduate students and they are evenly divided into male and female. They are randomly assigned to the group of indirect category learning of individual functional prediction(72 persons) and the group of indirect category learning relation to referential communication (144 persons).The three experimental tasks were carried out continuously, and the participants involving in functional relation interpretation under the two conditions relating to liberal classification task performed dimensional selection task. Dimensional selection task analyses in a MANOVA . The present study indicated that among dimensions selection tasks of three relational categories the relativity of dimensional number under the referential condition is significantly higher than that under individual condition. With the increasing relational complexity of relational category learning material, there is no significant difference among the results of dimensional selection. The study shows that the influence of the relational complexity upon selective attention during the indirect learning of relational category mainly reflected in the directivity of selective attention and did not reflect in the the concerntration of selective attention (the inhibition of non-relative dimension), the influence of the relational complexity upon overall selective attention was not significant. The participants’ overall level of selective attention under the referential condition was strikingly significantly higher than that under the individual condition, and was not influenced by the relational complexity, which suggest that the influence mainly reflected in the directivity of selective attention and did not reflect in the the concerntration of selective attention.

Key words: relational complexity, relational category, indirect learning, referential communication, selective attention

摘要： 以大学生为被试，使用关系复杂性逐渐变化的实验材料——4特征复杂关系的虚拟外星生物、6特征复杂关系加二阶同功能简单关系的虚拟外星生物和6特征复杂关系加二阶异功能简单关系的虚拟外星生物，采用类别的间接性学习范式——个人功能预测的关系类别的间接性学习条件和参照性交流的关系类别的间接性学习条件，通过三个实验任务（功能预测、自由分类和维度选择），探讨材料关系复杂性对关系类别间接性学习中选择性注意的影响。结果发现：随着关系复杂性的逐渐增高，被试的选择性注意水平不存在显著差异，但选择性注意的指向性存在极其显著差异，选择性注意的集中性（对无关维度的抑制）不存在显著差异；参照条件下被试选择性注意水平极其显著地高于个人条件，这种差异主要表现在选择性注意的指向性方面，而不表现在选择性注意的集中性（对无关维度的抑制）方面。

关键词: 关系复杂性, 关系类别, 间接性学习, 参照性交流, 选择性注意