Often, the evidence we observe is consistent with more than one explanation. How do learners discriminate among candidate causes? The current studies examine whether counterfactuals help 5-year olds (N = 120) select between competing hypotheses and compares the effectiveness of these prompts to a related scaffold. In Experiment 1, counterfactuals…

The ability to discriminate social signals from faces is a fundamental component of human social interactions whose developmental origins are still debated. In this study, 5-year-old (N = 29) and 7-year-old children (N = 31) and adults (N = 34) made perceptual similarity and trustworthiness judgments on a set of female faces varying in level of…

This study investigates the ability of 6-month-old infants to attend to the continuous properties of a set of discrete entities. Infants were habituated to dot arrays that were constant in cumulative surface area yet varied in number for small (less than 4) or large (greater than 3) sets. Results revealed that infants detected a 4-fold (but not…

This study used a learning-set task to assess the ability of four 10-month-old infants to acquire an object discrimination. (Author/JMB)

To determine why the familiarization-novelty paradigm tends to underestimate the ability of infants under 4 months of age to detect unidimensional differences between stimuli, groups of 14- and 20-week-olds were given unidimensional discrimination problems of varying difficulty under conditions of brief and prolonged familiarization. (Author/JMB)

Forty-eight four-month-old infants were tested in a habituation-dishabituation discrimination paradigm using vertically symmetrical, horizontally symmetrical, and asymetrical forms. Results suggest that babies respond to "goodness of organization" rather than to details unique to particular symmetrical patterns. (Author/RH)

Examines the ability of preschool children to discriminate perceptually among novel forms frequently employed in referential communication tasks. (JMB)

The relative effectiveness of positive and negative adult preference statements in controlling children's behavior was studied. Results indicated that the adult's antecedent negative comments exerted greater control over the children than did the positive comments. (ST)

A critical examination of two key aspects of Piaget's account of how small children come to understand basic number concepts. (Author/CS)

An infant control habituation-recovery procedure was used to study 3-month-old infants' discrimination of sad, happy, and surprise facial expressions. (Author/JMB)

Examines discrimination of geometric shapes by three-month-old infants who were presented with geometric stimuli moving laterally at two different velocities. Finds that subjects discriminate between geometric forms at velocities that, according to previous findings, might interfere with shape discrimination. Discusses the possible interactive…

Visual preference and habituation paradigms were used to investigate the ability of three-month-olds to recognize the photographed face of the mother and to discriminate it from another face. Infants discriminated between the pictures of the mother and a stranger, both in the preference test and in the recognition test after habituation.…

The information load analysis of a discrimination-learning situation was studied by comparing speed of learning with a conventional reinforcement procedure and an inseparable reinforcer. Results showed more rapid learning by 4- to 6-year-olds with the inseparable reinforcer on earlier problems in a series and greater effect on more difficult…

Behavioral responses of 3- to 4-day-old newborns to the odors of various human milk (HM) and formula milk (FM) were examined in paired-choice tests. When both stimuli were nonfamiliar, breast-fed, as well as bottle-fed, infants oriented their head and mouthed more vigorously to HM than to FM. When breast-fed infants were exposed to nonfamiliar HM…

Recognition memory, defined by novelty preferences, was found to vary over 4 discrimination tasks as a function of length of familiarization for 5-6-month-old infants. (ST)