Background: This study investigated the relative ease of learning across four tasks suggested by an adaptation of Thomas's hierarchy of learning in children with Down syndrome, autism spectrum disorders and mental age-matched controls. Methods: Learning trials were carried out to investigate observational learning, instrumental learning, reversal…

Assesses the long-term retention of conditioned operant footkicks by three-month-old infants. Views a conditioning analysis as a logical means by which to bridge the gap between animal and adult human models of memory. (Author/RH)

The effects of rate of conditioned reinforcement on the resistance to change of operant behavior have not been examined. In addition, the effects of rate of conditioned reinforcement on the rate of observing have not been adequately examined. In two experiments, a multiple schedule of observing-response procedures was used to examine the effects…

Twenty-two subjects were asked to generate fifty numbers from 0 to 100 at ten second intervals. These subjects were then taught to imagine a pleasant scene or an aversive scene on cue from the experimenter. After practice imagining these scenes, subjects were again requested to give fifty numbers between 0 and 100. Group I was cued to imagine the…

Three-month-old infants learned to activate a crib mobile by means of operant footkicks. Retention of the conditioned response was assessed in the presence of the nonmoving mobile. Although forgetting is typically complete after an 8-day retention interval, infants who received a reactivation treatment, a brief exposure to the reinforcer 24 hours…

Five experiments were conducted to determine whether properties inherent in some training procedures may subtly influence the adaptability of skilled performance of complex tasks. The first two experiments assessed the insensitivity of low-rate performances. Examined in the third experiment was the issue of whether instructions that focus…