IN ORDER TO DETERMINE WHETHER EXTENSIVE PRIOR LISTENING PRACTICE IN A LANGUAGE COURSE WOULD HAVE ANY BENEFITS IN DEVELOPING SPEAKING AND AURAL COMPREHENSION SKILLS, 19 U.S. ARMY OFFICERS SCHEDULED TO GO TO VIETNAM WERE DIVIDED INTO TWO GROUPS THAT PARTICIPATED IN A SELF-INSTRUCTIONAL PROGRAMED COURSE IN ELEMENTARY VIETNAMESE LASTING 83 HOURS. THE…

Examined were the effects of number of stimuli and of two different stimulus modalities on the discrimination learning of 17 autistic children (mean age 57 months). Discrimination training was carried out in three groups with varied light and sound stimuli. Among findings was that mental age was negatively correlated with trials to criterion and…

In Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior, three categories of environmental control over instances of verbal behavior appear to be relevant to the study of infant vocal development: the mand, the tact, and the echoic categories. Procedures used in the remediation of language deficiencies and procedures found in work in the area of language…

This study examined the ability of preschool children to process and use conceptual category information in a disrcimination learning task. A total of 60 boys and girls between the ages of 2 1/2 and 4 years completed a 3-choice discrimination learning task. On each of 12 trials, a child was presented with three magazine photographs: one of an…

This book is an introduction to the psychological study of basic learning processes in children. Written for students who are not majors in psychology and who do not have much familiarity with the technical vocabulary of psychology, it has two themes: even the most basic kinds of learning are included by cognitive processes or mental activities;…

This paper reports a study which investigated 2-month-old infants' auditory discrimination of tone quality in the male voice, extending a previous study which found that voice quality changes (soft versus harsh) in a female voice were discriminable by infants at this age. Subjects were 20 infants, tested at 8 and 9 weeks of age. Each infant was…

The Responsive Model Program uses the typing or learning booth as an important part of its autotelic (self-rewarding) environment, to help children develop the mental processes involved in discovery of relationships, such as the association of sound with symbols, or discovering the rules of a game. The typing booth also helps children to develop…

A wide variety of counseling techniques based on behavioral principles have been described. While the therapeutic advantages of these techniques have been demonstrated, there is limited evidence to suggest that systematic procedures have been developed to train people to use these techniques. The proposed discrimination model is based on…

A series of investigations which simultaneously manipulated parameters of reinforcement and age and sex of children were conducted in order to further describe the learning process in children. In addition, an attempt was made to relate perceived parental discipline to performance in the discrimination learning tasks employed in this research. The…

Six studies relevant to the analysis of generalized imitative behavior are described. The first examined the role of verbal instructions in generalized imitation by comparing the use of a "do this" instruction with no such instruction and the use of positive reinforcement with no reinforcement. The tenacity of generalized imitation in this study…

A report is presented which relates to a general hypothesis suggested by previous data on visual response to faces that in the first weeks of life infants develop expectations regarding the human face. Three predictions were made: (1) Silent human faces would elicit less direct regard than faces accompanied by voices; (2) A familiar face would…

Sixteen (16) male and sixteen (16) female fourth graders from disadvantaged backgrounds and from advantaged backgrounds were given the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) and the Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFFT), followed by a paired-associates task and a discrimination learning task. Results showed socioeconomic status…

This study was undertaken to compare the effectiveness of two basic approaches to the training of auditory discrimination and to assess the effect of training upon language functioning and acquisition. Subjects were 42 culturally deprived Negro preschoolers. A receptive training group, an expressive training group, and a control group were used.…

Subjects at three age levels were administered picture pair or word pair discrimination lists. They pronounced or pointed as a method of choice, and they pronounced or pointed at the correct item (or remained silent) during rehearsal. The results indicated that with picture pairs, pronunciation facilitated learning as a method of choice and a type…

A component selection measure developed by Hale and Morgan (1971) was used to determine children's tendency to exercise selective attention. This tendency was assessed at six different levels of training, ranging from undertraining to overtraining, and was examined at each of three ages--4 (N=116), 8 (N=216), and 12 (N=104). In the learning phase,…