Digital Commons Network^™

Uni- And Bidimensional Concept Learning As A Function Of Age, C. Jean Rogers

Psychology ETDs

Dimensional attention in six- and nine-year-olds was assessed by the use of two concept identification tasks which allowed either a uni- or bidimensional solution. It was expected that the older children would be more likely to attain a bidimensional solution. The results did not confirm this prediction. A subsequent analysis of solution strategies revealed that a primary strategy or both age groups was to learn two values from a single dimension, one which predicted positive instances and one which predicted negative instance. If Ss were presented with a task where this strategy was unsuccessful, they tended to adopt one of …

The Stimulus Properties Of Change In Magnitude Of Reinforcement., James E. Schroeder

Psychology ETDs

The major purpose of the present experiment was to demonstrate the incentive and discriminative stimulus (SD) properties of a change in magnitude of reinforcement. This was accomplished in a differential instrumental conditioning setting by correlating carious shifts in magnitude of reinforcement (and, therefore, incentive) on the discriminative stimulus trial (trial SD) with magnitude of reward on the next trial (trials SD+1). In condition LL a large reinforcement on trial SD was perfectly correlated with large reward on trial SD+1. Thus, incentive and the discrimination worked together to increase rate of responding on trials SE+1 relative to trial SD. In condition …

The Effects Of Novel Stimuli In The Discrimination Learning Of Children, Evelyn W. Francis

Psychology ETDs

While it has been demonstrated that stimulus novelty has a variety of influences upon the behavior of children, there has been little systematic research on the effects of stimulus novelty upon discrimination learning. Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of relevant stimulus novelty, defined in terms of familiarization pretraining, on the discrimination learning of normal children. First and second grade children learned either a high or low stimulus similarity, two-choice, discrimination problem. Prior to this discrimination task the subjects received either no familiarization (C) or 15 familiarization training trials with the negative stimulus(NF), positive stimulus (PF), both the …

The Facilitative Role Of Response Contingent Exteroceptive Feedback In A Discriminated Wheel Turn Avoidance Task, Barbara Ballin Lerman

Psychology ETDs

Four groups of 8 hooded rats were conditioned to avoid shock by turning a wheel in the presence of either a single or compound warning signal, and with or without an exteroceptive feedback stimulus contingent upon each response. Group L received a single light CS and no feedback stimulus; group L + C, a compound CS composed of lights and click, and no FS; group L + FS, a light CS and a FS; and group L + C + FS, a light and click CS and a FS. A response contingent exteroceptive feedback stimulus significantly improved level of avoidance …

Post-Discrimination Gradients: The Averaging Hypothesis, Michael Glenn Grisham

Psychology ETDs

The averaging hypothesis states that intermediate rates in generalization tests represent a composite of two interresponse time (IRT) topographies established during prior acquisition. A short-IRT topography, characteristic of S^D responding, and a long-IRT topography, characteristic of S^Δ responding, occur in different proportions as a function of generalization test stimulus value. Demonstrations of averaging have had limited generality due to departures from the typical discrimination training and test procedures. The present experiment investigated averaging in a context distinguished from typical discrimination training and test procedures only by the use of separate manipulanda for the collection of S^D and …

Categorization And Discrimination Of Random Forms Following Schema Training, Ronald W. Shaffer

Psychology ETDs

Several investigators have shown that when given a task of categorizing several classes of random patterns, where each class consists of a number of patterns all generated from a common pattern or prototype, Ss learn to abstract a code analogous to or congruent with each class prototype in the process. This learning has been termed schematic abstraction or schema learning. Inferences regarding schematic abstraction have been drawn from the observation of .§s' categorization performance in a transfer task where the prototype is first presented along with both new and previously sorted class patterns. Enhanced performance with class prototypes when compared …

Experimentally Induced "Awareness" And Change On Personality Measures Following Verbal Conditioning., Harry C. Linneman

Psychology ETDs

ABSTRACT

Instructions were used to produce differential awareness conditions in a quasi-psychotherapeutic verbal operant conditioning situation. The effects of the awareness variable on the verbal behavior emitted during two conditioning sessions and on change scores on academic anxiety scales were investigated.

Four levels of awareness were used: subjects were informed about the desired response class, the presence of reinforcement, both the presence of reinforcement and the proper response class, or nothing about either the response class or reinforcement. Each subject partici­pated individually in two 2O-minute verbal conditioning sessions on two consecutive days. Reinforcement was made contingent either upon the emission …