Sequence learning is fundamental to a wide range of cognitive functions. Explaining how sequences--and the relations between the elements they comprise--are learned is a fundamental challenge to cognitive science. However, although hundreds of articles addressing this question are published each year, the actual learning mechanisms involved in the…

Two experiments tested whether a peak-shifted generalization gradient could be explained by the averaging of distinct gradients displayed in subgroups reporting different generalization rules. Across experiments using a causal judgment task (Experiment 1) and a fear conditioning paradigm (Experiment 2), we found a close concordance between…

Two experiments assessed the effects of extinguishing a conditioned cue on subsequent context conditioning. Each experiment used a different video-game method where sensors predicted attacking spaceships and participants responded to the sensor in a way that prepared them for the upcoming attack. In Experiment 1 extinction of a cue which signaled…

Distributional information is a potential cue for learning syntactic categories. Recent studies demonstrate a developmental trajectory in the level of abstraction of distributional learning in young infants. Here we investigate the effect of prosody on infants' learning of adjacent relations between words. Twelve- to thirteen-month-old infants…

Individuals with anxiety disorders often do not respond to safety signals and hence continue to be afraid and anxious. Consequently, it is important to develop paradigms in animals that can directly study brain systems involved in learning about, and responding to, safety signals. We previously developed a discrimination procedure in rats of the…

Learning to discriminate between spatial locations defined by two adjacent arms of a radial maze in the conditioned cue preference paradigm requires two kinds of information: latent spatial learning when the rats explore the maze with no food available, and learning about food availability in two spatial locations when the rats are then confined…

Presents four studies of concept identification behavior in first graders and kindergarten children under the blocking paradigm as implemented within a multidimensional discrimination task. While blocking was observed in children's learning, the data indicate the need for more sensitive and individualized measures of stimulus control in future…

In this study of errorless learning a procedure is tested which allows the subject himself to adjust the speed at which a supplementary stimulus aid is withdrawn. A standard match-to-sample apparatus with 1 sample window above and 4 matching (response) windows below was used. Tokens were delivered for correct responses and the correct matching…

Results of a study with 10 moderately retarded adolescents on the salience of transverse compound stimuli (combinations of positive and negative cues) were interpreted as an instance of developmental changes in unlearned stimulus salience hierarchies. The low saliency of transverse compounds was suggested to be related to reading difficulties.…

Results indicated the level of correct responding was higher under the "specific reinforcement" condition than under either "nonspecific" or "variable reinforcement" conditions, suggesting that a strategy of reinforcement which includes cue values of the discriminative stimulus may strengthen the learning process. (Author/CL)

Second graders were administered a two-choice discrimination task in which irrelevant dimensions were correlated .50, .75, or 1.00 with the 100 percent rewarded cue. Results indicate that learning was most impeded in the .75 condition and was most efficient in the 1.00 condition. These results support the Hypothesis Testing Theory of…

A sequence of studies compared two types of discrimination formation: errorless learning and trial-and-error procedures. The subjects were three boys and five girls from a university preschool. The children performed the experimental tasks at a typical match-to-sample apparatus with one sample window above and four match (response) windows below.…

Second-grade children were trained on an optional shift task in order to assess the relation between the amount of overtraining and (a) the type of shift executed by Ss, and (b) the breadth of learning. (Editor)

Three experiments examined 4- to 10-month-olds' perception of audio-visual (A-V) temporal synchrony cues in the presence or absence of rhythmic pattern cues. Results established that infants of all ages could discriminate between two different audio-visual rhythmic events. Only 10-month-olds detected a desynchronization of the auditory and visual…