This study examined the effects of sentence length and correct syntax on sentence imitation in 54 first-, second-, and fifth-grade elementary school children. The same children were asked to perform an additional discrimination task between normal and scrambled sentences. (Author/CS)

Study supported by Mental Health Research Grant 605-5-373.

Research supported in part by Public Health Service grant NB-07346 from the National Institute of Mental Health.

The study evaluated the usefulness of 48 hours of Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy (REST) as a treatment for eight autistic children (between 5 and 11 years old). Ss were placed in a dimly lit room which contained only a mattress, told to ask for toilet facilities when needed, and then left alone except for when meals were brought in.…

The purpose of this study was to identify the nature of the information which preschool-age children must attend to and maintain within problems in order to solve a series of two-choice simultaneous discrimination problems. Twenty-four preschool children participated in the experiment. The stimuli used in these problems consisted of planometric…

Six nonverbal, autistic boys (ages 6 to 11) were studied to assess what was learned when signs and spoken words were presented simultaneously. The boys were taught to discriminate among several available objects when given commands consisting of simultaneously signed and spoken object labels. Each of the six children mastered all of the…

BOTH COGNITIVELY-ORIENTED AND RESPONSE-ORIENTED THEORIES OF PERCEPTUAL LEARNING ARE DISCUSSED AND CONTRASTED WITH A STIMULUS-ORIENTED THEORY. PERCEPTUAL LEARNING IS DEFINED AS AN INCREASE IN SPECIFICITY OF DISCRIMINATION OF THE STIMULUS INPUT. THE AUTHOR DESCRIBED WHAT IS LEARNED IN PERCEPUTAL LEARNING AS () THE DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF THINGS, (2)…

STUDIES HAVE SHOWN THAT IT IS POSSIBLE TO ESTABLISH DISCRIMINATORY RESPONSES TO PAIRS OF STIMULI WITHOUT ERROR RESPONSES TO THE UNREINFORCED (S-) STIMULUS. THE PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY WAS TO DETERMINE THE EFFECTS OF 2 METHODS OF INTRODUCING S- (FADING AND CONSTANT) AND 2 RESPONSE CONTINGENCIES (DELAY AND NO DELAY) ON THE OCCURRENCE OF S- RESPONSES.…

THE PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY WAS TO DETERMINE THE RELATIVE INFLUENCE OF FIVE VARIABLES (INITIAL INSTRUCTIONS, REWARD, LETTER SIZE, TYPE OF WARM-UP, AND FEEDBACK) ON KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN'S PERFORMANCE OF A LETTER DISCRIMINATION TASK. IT HAS BEEN ARGUED THAT ATTENTION IS THE KEY FACTOR IN LETTER DISCRIMINATION. THE PRESENT STUDY PROPOSES THAT A…

This study consisted of two experiments. In the first experiment, 40 college students gave frequency ratings for concrete and abstract words which were equated on normative frequency. From the results it was concluded that abstract (low imagery) words, even though the two sets of words are of equal frequency. In the second experiment, different…

The study attempted to minimize nonspecific response strategies which supposedly mask the positive effect of perceptual pretraining on initial discrimination learning within the predifferentiation paradigm. The subjects were 44 first- and second-graders. Experimental-group subjects received rules learning (RL), pretraining, initial discrimination…

The rationale, planning and implementing of this research is discussed in terms of its three hypotheses: (1) that both self desensitization and in vivo desensitization would result in lower Fear Index and Anxiety Differential scores of counselor trainees just prior to communicating with a role playing client in a counseling room where they are…

Our educational system is traditional and backward-looking, and it produces students who cannot deal with change. It consists of an irrelevant, structured "subject matter" system where subject matter knowledge is the end goal, a paradox in an age of change. Traditional classroom organization must be eliminated (including grades, desks, courses,…

Upper-middle and low socio-economic level (SEL) subjects were compared on a discrimination learning task and on personality measures of locus of control of reinforcement and need for approval (Napp). Upper-middle SEL subjects were found to be faster discrimination learners than low SEL subjects only when the relevant stimulus cue was on a highly…

This document describes the Conceptual Learning and Development (CLD) model of concept formation. According to the CLD analysis, a single concept is learned in the following successive levels of attainment: concrete, identity, classification, and formal. The four levels are considered applicable to concepts that are defined (or could be defined)…