A single administration of the reversal learning paradigm is not a sufficient basis for determining either a given subject's choice of option or his behavior on its constituent learning measures. This conclusion raises many questions about past research relating to mediation theory, since this paradigm has been the basic one employed. (Authors)

Describes two experiments conducted to explain why retarded children of younger mental age appear to be more selective on discrimination tasks containing relevant redundant cues than do children of older mental age. Findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the latter group of children are overselective because they tend to solve…

According to Hypothesis (H) theory, learning should be very difficult when the number of Hs the subject samples from is very large and/or the correct H is not available. These assumptions were tested with third- and fourth-grade children. In general, results supported these assumptions. (Author/MP)

Three experiments investigated 4-, 6-, and 8-month-olds' perception of the audible, visible, and combined attributes of bimodally specified syllables. Results suggested that at 4 months, infants attended primarily to the featural information, at 6 months primarily to the asynchrony, and at 8 months to both features independently. (Author/KB)

Results revealed that (1) relevant verbal experience facilitated learning only for preschoolers, (2) irrelevant verbal experience did not interfere with learning, and (3) visual highlighting exerted no significant effects. (Author/MB)

Children often perseverate, repeating prior behaviors when inappropriate. This work tested the roles of verbal labels and stimulus novelty in such perseveration. Three-year-old children sorted cards by one rule and were then instructed to switch to a second rule. In a basic condition, cards had familiar shapes and colors and both rules were stated…

Four-, five-, and six-year-old children were used as subjects in this investigation. There were 192 experimental and 96 control children used, divided equally between the three age groups. The experimental children received a 1-minute pretest exposure procedure in which 1/4 of the children observed 4 two-dimensional stimuli (irregular pentagons),…

Compared the processing of rapid auditory stimuli on two-tone auditory discrimination tasks by 7- to 11-year-olds with learning impairments (LI) and those without learning impairments (non-LI). Found that LI children committed more errors, but the effects of timing were comparable. Obtained same results with a sample of good and poor readers. Task…