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…

A total of 128 first- and second-graders participated in two sets of shift problems: (1) four extra-dimensional shifts; and (2) shift problems with two types of cue-reinforcement conditions (same and reversal). (ED)

Eighty-four nine year old children, twelve in each of seven experimental groups, learned a two-choice successive discrimination problem. The parameters that were systematically manipulated included: (1) immediate versus delayed reinforcement; and (2) forced preresponse stimulus exposure versus stimulus exposure during the delay interval,…

Results imply that sets of instructions may form a response class, with characteristics similar to those found in studies of generalized imitation. (Author)

Main effect of reinforcement for mean response latency indicated that subjects took longer to respond under disapproval than under approval or silence. (Authors)

Study investigated the effect of the stimulus variables of value, chroma, and hue in relation to sex, intelligence, and dimensional attention of kindergarten children using two reward conditions. (Author)

Two major implications of this study are that repeated testing is a necessity for young children, and that repeated contrasts may provide a more accurate assessment of phonological discrimination ability in children. (Authors/MB)

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…

Research supported by U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity, OEO-4120.

Results of two experiments show that only postinformative feedback intervals to be significant sources of variation; mean trends appeared to indicate that extended preresponse intervals interfere with performance, if anything. (Authors/MB)

Data were discussed in terms of an outline of an empirically based theory of transfer. (Authors)