This experiment was designed to examine the reinforcing effects not only of similar-dissimilar attitude statements, but also names of liked-disliked persons in a discrimination learning task. (Author)

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…

Investigated were the effects of varying instructional explicitness (minimal, general, and explicit) and types of reinforcement (none, extrinsic, and intrinsic or relational) on the learning of an oddity discrimination task by 48 nursery school children. Ss were randomly assigned to six groups where general or minimal instructional explicitness…

Investigates the effect of delay of reinforcement upon human discrimination learning with particular emphasis on the form of the gradient within the first few seconds of delay. In previous studies subjects are usually required to make an instrumental response to a stimulus, this is followed by the delay interval, and finally, the reinforcement…

A major concern of this report was to compare the effect of three verbal reinforcement combinations (VRCs) on the rate at which children learn a simultaneous two-choice discrimination problem. The experiments were designed to test the following: (1) whether relative effectiveness of the VRCs was dependent upon task complexity or subject age; (2)…

In this study, 48 third-grade children learned a successive, two-choice discrimination under one of three conditions: (1) immediate reinforcement (IM), (2) 10-second empty delay (ED), and (3) 10-second delay with the discriminative stimuli in view of S (FD). The performances of groups IM and FD were only marginally different, and were both…

This paper develops a stimulus selection theory, based on an extensive review of previous research, which gives weight to context change or stimulus generalization decrement. The theory assumes no special compounding or configurational process, and accounts for the learning of successive discriminations without the addition of any special process.…

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,…

The author initially cites the associationistic position of Spiker and the perceptual learning position of E. Gibson and concludes that the existing data does not clearly support either hypothesis. He describes a new approach designed to test these explanations of the role of verbal pretraining on subsequent discrimination learning. It consists of…

The present study examines the relationship between alternation behavior and performance, and in addition, the effects of reinforcement configuration and relevant dimension upon the use of alternation strategies in probability learning. Also investigated is the hypothesis that children's errors at terminal levels of performance in a two-choice…

The bibliography on learning in mentally handicapped persons is divided into the following topic categories: applied behavior change, classical conditioning, discrimination, generalization, motor learning, reinforcement, verbal learning, and miscellaneous. An author index is included. (KW)

The results of a group of studies, the objective of which was to clarify the conditions that account for the effectiveness of verbal approbation, are reported. Among the most significant findings were: (1) that the reinforcement properties of verbal approval are susceptible to distortion, misinterpretation or enhancement and must be applied in a…

One hundred twenty-eight preschool boys were subjects in a 4x2x2 factorial design to investigate the change in reinforcer efficacy as a function of prior stimulus exposure. The factors were: (1) amount of repetition, 5, 25, 45, or 65; (2) reinforcer, good or bell; and (3) satiator, good or bell. Two additional groups were run as control groups to…

This book is a compilation of literature and research concerning how children learn. The first chapter is a historical introduction to research in learning that summarizes the major developments of the last 100 years and relates these developments specifically to children's learning. The main body of the text is divided into six major topics: (1)…