Investigated the effect of correction and noncorrection procedures on the occurrence of the overlearning reversal effect (ORE) in 80 children 4-6 years of age. Results showing the existence of ORE at the preschool level are explained in terms of a response-switching strategy. (GO)

Mentally retarded children taught to discriminate the dimensions of a visual display using a matching-to-sample procedure that provided full verbal feedback of the reasons for successes and failures exhibited superiority in intradimensional transfer compared to a control group. Two years later, trained Ss maintained a slight advantage. (Author/CL)

Twenty 3- to 5-year-olds were required to discriminate between a simultaneously-presented pair of displays having common elements but differentiated by the presence of a distinctive feature in one of the displays. The effect of explicit verbal feedback for incorrect choices on the learning of discriminations was examined. (JH)

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)

These findings suggest that a high density of negative feedback induces both reflective and impulsive children to make fewer errors than does positive feedback. (Authors)

Groups of second grade and college students were presented with a series of three-alternative, four-dimensional discrimination problems that contained probes for the subject's hypothesis. Subjects received either complete feedback or partial feedback. In the latter condition, when subjects were told their response choice was incorrect the correct…

Two groups of kindergarten children received stimulus differentiation training either with feedback (experimental Ss) or without (controls), prior to presentation of a series of discrimination-learning problems using blank-trial probes. Findings are discussed in relation to theoretical perspectives derived from Piagetian theory and developmental…

A total of 90 undergraduate volunteers learned a 12-pair, low-frequency verbal discrimination list. Independent variables were feedback (positive only, negative only, or both) and initial success (17, 50, or 83 percent correct on the first trial). While the main effect of feedback was not significant, that of initial success was. (Author/RH)

The purpose of these 2 experiments was to determine whether sequential response pattern behavior is affected by partial reinforcement in the same way as other behavior systems. The first experiment investigated the partial reinforcement extinction effects (PREE) in a sequential concept learning task where subjects were required to learn a…

In an experiment to test the effectiveness of discrimination training--contrasting good and poor teacher behaviors and demonstrating the stimulus occasions for these behaviors--as compared with feedback from an instructor in microteaching, a discrimination model for a limited class of teaching behaviors was devised and subjects were divided into…

To determine whether the effects of noncontingent feedback were transferable, 64 first-grade boys first were given a two-choice discrimination task and then a different contingent task. Results suggested that, even when conditions change, experience with prior noncontingent feedback disrupts the ability to use contingent information. (Author/BE)

Research supported in part by Public Health Service grant NB-07346 from the National Institute of Mental Health.