Receptive identification is usually taught in matching-to-sample format, which entails the presentation of an auditory sample stimulus and several visual comparison stimuli in each trial. Conflicting recommendations exist regarding the order of stimulus presentation in matching-to-sample trials. The purpose of this study was to compare acquisition…

A shift in generalization gradients away from S+ and towards stimuli on the opposite end of the stimulus dimension from S- is a well established phenomenon in the laboratory, occurring with humans and nonhumans and with a wide range of stimuli. The phenomenon of gradient shifts has also been observed to have an analogous relationship to a variety…

A linked perceptual class consists of two distinct perceptual classes, A' and B', the members of which have become related to each other. For example, a linked perceptual class might be composed of many pictures of a woman (one perceptual class) and the sounds of that woman's voice (the other perceptual class). In this case, any sound of the…

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…

Three experiments investigated discrimination and memory of 5.5-month-olds for videotapes of women performing different activities (blowing bubbles, brushing hair, brushing teeth) or static displays after a 1-minute and a 7-week delay. Findings demonstrate the attentional salience of actions over faces in dynamic events to 5.5-month-olds. Findings…

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)

Investigates to what extent discrimination learning through time delay of multistimulus, distinctive-feature prompts is a function of the inclusion and configuration of the S-prompt. Results of two experiments with children aged four and five indicate that most subjects did not learn the task assigned unless two distinctive-feature prompts were…

This study was designed to assess the relative effectiveness of four components of pretraining on a subsequent simultaneous discrimination and reversal: (1) making same-different judgments about the two stimuli; (2) making a specific observing response to the critical feature of the stimuli; (3) simple familiarization with the stimuli; and (4)…