Table 1.

Task details of the two-stage training paradigms.

SEMANTIC TRAINING
Session and number of objects involved	No. of trials	Task
Session 1 (4 Symmetric-organic Greebles and 4 Asymmetric-metallic Greebles),	16 in session 1,	Passive viewing: To initiate learning, this task allowed participants to study each Greeble with the three associated attributes, twice for as long as needed
Session 2 (6 Symmetric-organic Greebles and 6 Asymmetric-metallic Greebles)	24 in session 2
	576	Three-attribute matching: To promote associations between each Greeble and each unique set of attributes, this task required participants to judge if a set of three attributes matched a concurrently presented Greeble
	576	Single-attribute matching: To ensure participants learned all three attributes independently, instead of any one from each set, this task required participants to judge if a single attribute matched a subsequently presented Greeble
	16 in session 1,	Recall: To examine if participants were able to generate the associated attributes without verbal hints, participants were asked to input the three attributes associated with each Greeble, twice
	24 in session 2
INDIVIDUATION TRAINING
Session and number of objects involved	No. of trials	Task
Session 1 (6 Symmetric-organic Greebles and 6 Asymmetric-metallic Greebles),	720	Naming: To promote learning of each Greeble with its name, participants were asked to input the first letter of the name associated with a Greeble. The names were shown during the first 3 presentations of a Greeble
Session 2 (12 Symmetric-organic Greebles and 12 Asymmetric-metallic Greebles)
	480	Name matching: To ensure participants learn to individuate the Greebles quickly and accurately, participants were asked to judge if a name matched with a concurrently presented Greeble as quickly and accurately as possible
	384	Name verification: A variation of the Name matching task to encourage task-general learning, participants judged if a name matched with a subsequently presented Greeble

We used a variety of tasks in every session to promote task-general learning. These tasks were previously used in several studies (semantic training: James and Gauthier, 2003, 2004; individuation training: e.g., Gauthier and Tarr, 2002; Wong et al., 2009). The semantic training (stage 1) consisted of four tasks promoting associations between a set of three words to a trained object. The trained objects were introduced across the first two training sessions: 8 Greebles (4 Symmetric-organic and 4 Asymmetric-metallic Greebles) were introduced in session 1 and all 12 Greebles (6 of each category) were introduced in session 2. The individuation training (stage 2) consisted of three tasks that aimed to enhance the speed and accuracy of identification for individual objects at the subordinate level. The trained objects were introduced across the first two training sessions: 12 Greebles were used in session 1 and all 24 Greebles were used in sessions 2–4.