Infants have shown variable success in quantity comparison tasks, with infants of a given age sometimes successfully discriminating numerical differences at a 2:3 ratio but requiring 1:2 and even 1:4 ratios of change at other times. The current explanations for these variable results include the two-systems proposal--a theoretical framework that…

It is pointed out that interpretation of learning set data will be easier and more informative if one uses a "first-order" problem, that is, one which can be solved on the first trial at the end of training. (Editor)

Research supported by Grant HD 03045 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, U.S. Public Health Service.

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…

Thirty subjects were presented with a visual form discrimination task requiring them to match Roman letters when a variety of transformations were held constant. They were given massed practice across four blocks of eight stimuli. Results of a repeated measures analysis of variance showed support for the distinctive features hypothesis. (JC)

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 studies of elementary school children's problem-solving procedures in intentional discrimination tasks are reported. Subjects were children selected from kindergarten and grades 2, 3, and 6. (Author/MP)

The contribution of decentration as an underlying component of discrimination learning and discrimination shift behavior was investigated in this study. In addition, the effect of verbal labeling and the relationship of academic achievement to discrimination learning and decentration was considered. The subjects were 120 first grade students who…