The verbal discrimination learning of elementary school children was assessed in two experiments. In both experiments, Ss were given either regular discrimination learning instructions (control), instructions to pronounce the correct pair member aloud three times during study trials (vocalization), or instructions to generate a visual image of the…

A model for the analysis of simple human conceptual behavior, based on the apparent similarities of human conceptual behavior and that of infrahuman subjects, is developed. A minimum definition of conceptual behavior is given: A single response, verbal or nonverbal, under the discriminative control of a group of stimuli whose parameters are…

A correspondence is suggested between the two different abilities underlying performance on intellectual or learning tasks discussed by Jensen and the two response processes postulated by various mediational models of discrimination learning. To test this, two groups of nursery school children differentiated by the measurable social class of their…

AS PART OF THE RESEARCH ON THE INFLUENCE OF RESPONSE-CONTINGENT REINFORCERS ON THE LEARNING AND PROBLEM-SOLVING BEHAVIOR OF CHILDREN, THE EFFECTS OF A LIMITED NUMBER OF VARIABLES ON THE PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN OF THREE AGE LEVELS (4-5, 7-8, AND 10-11), SELECTED EQUALLY FROM MIDDLE- AND LOWER-CLASS BACKGROUNDS, WERE INVESTIGATED. THE EXPERIMENTAL…

This study investigates the relationship between temporal organization and the rate at which discrimination-reversal learning mastery occurs within sixth-grade students. Subjects were 22 male and 30 female students from a predominantly white, middle class rural school. Temporal behavior was assessed with a task that had subjects reproduce standard…

A study was initiated with 60 blind children (kindergarten through grade 2) in order to validate the order of a sequence of tactual discrimination tasks leading to the use of braille and the Optacon. Ss were tested with tasks designed for the readiness level (discrimination of large solid geometric shapes, flat puzzle pieces, embossed dot…

Ten young males (aged 16-to-22 years) whose IQ scores ranged from 51 to 77 were compared on a simple discrimination task with ten male university students (aged 18-to-23 years) and 28 nonretarded male children (aged 7-to-11 years) in order to determine if reaction time is a consequence of mental retardation.

General intelligence may set structural feature limitations on three aspects of selective attention: direction, adjustability, and breadth. Data, theory, and methods bearing on this hypothesis were reviewed from the domain of visual discrimination learning. (Author/BW)

This study indicates that impulsive children inhibit expressive behavior less than reflective children in the presence of a nonverbal inhibitory cue, and provides support for the construct validity of the Matching Familiar Figures Test of reflectivity/impulsivity. (GO)

The article reviews and analyzes existing assistance procedures with moderately to severely developmentally disabled students. Procedures considered include those performed prior to responding and those involved with fading assistance. Implications for selecting assistance procedures are examined. (CL)

Evaluates the efficacy of two training procedures for eliminating selective stimulus control observed with three trainable mentally retarded children. In another experiment, improvements in stimulus control were not a function of varying degrees of difficulty between stimulus sets or of a prior history of discrimination training with the less…

A single administration of the reversal learning paradigm is not a sufficient basis for determining either a given subject's choice of option or his behavior on its constituent learning measures. This conclusion raises many questions about past research relating to mediation theory, since this paradigm has been the basic one employed. (Authors)

Finding suggests that in perceptual learning situations like that of the present study, there may be no particular advantage to impoverishing the environment'' by minimizing irrelevant cues, at least as far as the children's immediate memory for stimuli is concerned. (Author)