Liniar functions fitted to the proportion of optional reversal shifts as a function of log CA were used to assess the effect of stimulus and training variables on the development of reversal-shift. (ST)

Results suggest that kindergarten children extinguish mediating responses faster than instrumental choice responses while the reverse probably holds with second graders. (Authors)

Main effect of reinforcement for mean response latency indicated that subjects took longer to respond under disapproval than under approval or silence. (Authors)

Subjects were trained against their initial dimensional preference in a two-dimensional simultaneous discrimination learning task. (RH)

Project carried out under Contract No. PH 43 65-1011 between the Public Health Service, National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development and the Fels Research Institute.

Competence in action perception seems to be achieved very early in life. Because research has indicated that competent perceivers of action must be able to discriminate breakpoints in behavior, then recognition memory for breakpoints should be superior to that for nonbreakpoints at all ages where competence in action perception exists. Two studies…

This study, which indicates that both age and variation in training affect children's concept formation, provides a basis for explaining the effect of age. Sixty-four 4- and 5-year-olds learned three novel concepts (animal-like, plant-like, and machine-like). Subjects were presented with either four different examples of each concept (multiple…

Preschool children between 3 and 5 1/2 years of age participated in a learning task in which a conditional relational problem was presented in either a blocked or random series. Prior training on the components of the task was also varied. (BD)

This study was designed to investigate the role of the social desirability response tendency in the discrimination learning of first and fifth grade children. (BD)

An extension of discrimination-learning theory based on the inhibition of stimulus intensity was proposed and supported as a mechanism of cognitive development. Among 48 normal and 37 educable mentally retarded children the predominant category of transistional children conserved at a low level of stimulus intensity but failed to conserve at a…

Studies based on an analysis of one species of learning and transfer task, the transposition problem, in terms of two ways in which the experimenter's and the child's definition may differ. (Author)

Young adults and older adults participated in a weight discrimination study to decide if two weights lifted successively were the same or different and to rate the decision confidence of responses. Younger adults discriminated between weights better than older adults and men discriminated better than women. (Author/CC)

Forty elementary children (six and nine year olds) and 20 college students were required to discriminate identical pairs of visual stimuli from mirror images. It was hypothesized that a key factor in performance would be the extent to which orientation was a functionally significant attribute of the stimuli. (Author/MP)

Studies the effects of perceptual salience on performance in problems requiring the coordination of information. Subjects were groups of children, younger adults, and older adults. For each of the age groups, those problems containing the most salient information were solved faster and more accurately than problems containing the least salient…