A procedure to effectively and efficiently train moderately and severely retarded individuals to make fine visual discriminations is described. Results suggest that expectancies for such individuals are in need of examination. Implications for sheltered workshops, work activity centers and classrooms are discussed. [This article appeared…

Compared the performance of children with and without autism in object-based positive and negative priming tasks within a visual search procedure. Found object-based positive and negative priming effects in both groups, with no group differences in the magnitude of the effects. Compared to typically developing children, children with autism were…

Procedures were used to assess capacity to sustain adaptive responding and discrimination learning ability in 18 psychotic nonverbal children. It was concluded that the measures had good face validity with respect to assessment of discrimination, learning ability, and tolerance for intermittent reinforcement. (SB)

Two experiments compared 6-month-olds' numerosity discrimination performance on both large numbers and small numbers with both total filled area and total contour length controlled. Results showed that infants succeeded in discriminating 4 from 8 elements, but failed to discriminate 2 from 4 elements, providing evidence for the existence of two…

The study investigated the effect of information responsiveness in relation to training in feedback utilization on discrimination learning among 77 preschool children (ages four and five years). (Author/PHR)

This study tested 5- and 8-year-olds and adults in a bisection task with a sequence of stimuli in which time and number co-varied. Findings indicated that the number of stimuli interfered with 5-year-olds' performance on the temporal bisection task. Number interference decreased both with age and counting strategy. In the numerical bisection task,…

Attempted to maximize the efficacy of time-delay discrimination training of 16 preschoolers. No indications were found of effects of precision response pretraining on the outcome of time delay of static cues. Transfer and lack of transfer of stimulus control were associated with nonshifts and shifts of response loci, respectively. (RH)

Used shift-rate recovery method in three experiments to examine extent to which 6-month-olds find perceptual cues such as density and length useful in discrimination of linearly arranged sets of large numbers of objects. Found that infants can discriminate between large number sets by relying on absolute cues such as density and on relative cues…

Four experiments investigated newborns' ability to discriminate, recognize, and learn visual information embedded in the schematic face-like patterns preferred at birth. Results indicated that newborns discriminated face-like stimuli relying on their internal features and recognized a perceptual invariance between face-like configurations in…

In this study, 24 individuals (ages 6-37) with down syndrome had to learn a symbolic conditional discrimination task. Participants showed better terminal accuracy and faster learning of the task when the alternative correct responses were each followed by unique different outcomes than when nondifferential outcomes were arranged. (Contains…

This study, which assessed hypothesis-testing abilities using a discrimination-learning paradigm, found that 16 language-impaired primary-level children solved fewer problems than 16 controls equated on cognitive level, but the 2 groups used similar hypothesis types to solve the problems. Type of verbal feedback (explicit versus nonexplicit) did…

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)

Examined effects of a click signaling arrival of a visual stimulus to be timed on temporal discrimination in 3-, 5-, and 8-year-olds. Found that in all groups, the proportion of long responses increased with the stimulus duration, although the steepness of functions increased with age. Stimulus duration was judged longer with than without the…

Two studies examined whether infants' category discrimination in an object-examination task was based solely on an ad hoc analysis of perceptual similarities among the experimental stimuli. Findings indicated that 10- to 11-month- olds' responses varied systematically only with the presence of a category change, but not with the degree of…

Seven adults with severe to profound mental retardation participated in match-to-sample discrimination training under three conditions. Results indicated that error-correction procedures improve performance through negative reinforcement; that error correction may serve multiple functions; and that, for some subjects, trial repetition enhances…