The learning of the relations between discriminative stimuli, choice actions, and their outcomes can be characterized as conditional discriminative choice learning. Research shows that the technique of presenting unique outcomes for specific cued choices leads to faster and more accurate learning of such relations and has great potential to be…

A longstanding and fundamental debate in developmental science is whether knowledge is acquired through domain-specific or domain-general mechanisms. To date, there exists no tool to determine whether experimental data support one theoretical approach or the other. In this article, we argue that the U- and N-shaped curves found in a number of…

Competing explanations of the beneficial effect of spacing in retardate discrimination learning were tested. Results are inconsistent with consolidation and rehearsal theories but support the prediction of the Geber, Greenfield, and House spacing model that forgetting from short-term memory facilities retardate learning. (Author/SB)

Two studies of 7-year-olds and college students tested the hypothesis of a developmental difference in the degree to which subjects' memory performance was controlled by categorical properties vs. specific instance properties of test items. (GO)

The question of how children represent and use comparative or partially ordered information is examined. Two experiments tested a conjecture that a common representation, a linear order, underlies the processing of all comparatives. (Author/MS)

The report describes the development of the final 2 years of an intensive elementary school curriculum for fifth and sixth grade educable mentally retarded (EMR) children, to provide them with an opportunity to achieve their maximum potential for intellectual development, productivity, independence, and psychological well-being. Most of the…

Four experiments were conducted to assess the effects of certain stimulus variables on children's discrimination learning. In general, it was found that word frequency was negatively related to discrimination learning as long as the words were meaningful to the subjects. Moreover, the relationship between word and performance reversed in…

The aim of this report was to provide teachers of preschool and early elementary school children with a brief summary of current psychological research and theory concerned with the development of cognitive skills in young children. Psychological research often provides a basis for procedures teachers use in the classroom. Each chapter of the…

This is a partial report of a longitudinal investigation designed to assess the psychological effects of an experimentally conducted day care program on children during the first 30 months of life. The experimental subjects were Chinese and Caucasian children from working and middle class families who were cared for at a special group care center…