In Experiment 1, rats were trained on a discrimination in which one occasion setter, A, signaled that one cue (conditioned stimulus, CS), x, would be followed by one outcome, p (unconditioned stimulus, US), and a second CS, y, by a different outcome, q (x [right arrow] p and y [right arrow] q); a second occasion setter, B signalled the reverse…

Two groups of rats were trained in a symbolic delayed matching-to-sample task with a 0-s delay to discriminate sample stimuli that consisted of sequences of tone bursts. For one group, sequences varied in number with total sequence duration controlled. For the other group, total sequence duration, sum of the tone durations, and sum of the gap…

The single-stimulus (SS) preference assessment procedure has been described as more appropriate than the paired stimulus (PS) procedure for "lower functioning" individuals, but this guideline's vagueness limits its usefulness. We administered the SS and PS preference assessment procedures with food items to seven individuals with severe…

While many studies have investigated duration discrimination in human adults and in nonhuman animals, few have investigated this ability in infants. Here, we report findings that 6-month-old infants are able to discriminate brief durations, and, as with other animal species, their discrimination function is characterized by Weber's Law:…

We compared the ability of auditory, visual, and audiovisual (bimodal) exogenous cues to capture visuo-spatial attention under conditions of no load versus high perceptual load. Participants had to discriminate the elevation (up vs. down) of visual targets preceded by either unimodal or bimodal cues under conditions of high perceptual load (in…

Two experiments investigated baseline reviews as a relevant variable in reorganization of equivalence classes. After formation of three 4-member classes, participants learned reversals of baseline conditional discriminations and expanded the classes to 5 members each. In Experiment 1, 4 students responded on equivalence probes without baseline…

Examines the ability of preschool children to discriminate perceptually among novel forms frequently employed in referential communication tasks. (JMB)

The steps involved in teaching multiple discrimination to disabled students are listed for ecological, performance, functional, and stimulus analyses. Additional considerations, including stimulus modification and design of the instructional sequence (successive or cumulative approaches), are reviewed. (CL)

Three experiments involving institutionalized mentally retarded persons revealed that the antecedent stimulus manipulation (i.e., hiding the candy or the kitty) was critical to establishing correct performance, while manipulation of the consequent stimuli afffected performance slightly. Findings had implications for reinforcement conditions. (CL)

Twenty-seven retarded sheltered workshop employees were trained on discrimination tasks using combinations of preference, prompt, and task agreement. Data revealed that when the learners were prompted in the dimension of the target discrimination, fewer errors were made, training time was reduced, and fewer training trials were required to reach…

This article is based upon a dissertation submitted to the University of New Mexico in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. (MH)

People who wish to help others must learn to discriminate among the various moods of those they wish to assist. (CK)