Signal detection theory as a framework for interpreting concept acquisition was studied in three experiments involving preschool children. Results of the studies suggest that juxtaposition of minimally different examples is superior to exclusively positive sequences, and consistent instructions are superior to varied instructions. (Author/JN)

A pilot study and two formal studies were conducted with educable mentally handicapped (EMR) children to develop materials and procedures suitable for studying schema learning in EMRs and to demonstrate schema learning in EMRs in the absence of external guidance. The pilot and formal study I were conducted to develop suitable populations of…

TO VERIFY A PREVIOUSLY OBSERVED DEVELOPMENTAL INVERSION IN PROBLEM-SOLVING ABILITY AND TO EXPLORE PROBLEM-SOLVING STRATEGIES, RESEARCHERS GAVE A SET OF SEQUENTIAL-PATTERN RECOGNITION TESTS TO 316 CHILDREN, REPRESENTING NURSERY SCHOOL THROUGH SIXTH GRADE. EACH TEST CONSISTED OF FINDING TOKENS PLACED BEHIND 5 DOORS IN A PREDETERMINED PATTERN. THE…

A series of exploratory studies and three experiments dealing with conceptual rule learning are reported in this paper. Discussants related the results to subject matter fields and to educational research and development. Four groups of subjects, five to twelve years old, solved six rule learning problems. It was concluded that younger children…

Schema theory, an area of educational research within perceptual learning theory, is divided into five major subtopics: (1) explanation, development, and background; (2) theoretical approaches; (3) pattern classification; (4) pattern quantification; and (5) quantified pattern feature approach (which attempts to combine classification and…

Michael (1975) reviewed efforts to classify reinforcing events in terms of whether stimuli are added (positive reinforcement) or removed (negative reinforcement). He concluded that distinctions in these terms are confusing and ambiguous. Of necessity, adding a stimulus requires its previous absence and removing a stimulus its previous presence.…

Trained preschoolers and adults on three sets of successive discriminations with stimuli labeled A, B, and R. Tested for derived stimulus-response relations and stimulus-stimulus relations. Adults displayed class-consistent B-R and A-B performances over all conditions. Children's display of class-consistent B-R performance varied by training…

A series of five experiments was designed and administered to 679 elementary and junior high school students over a 2-year period to test the relevance of Jean Piaget's concept of conservation to musical learning. Musical tasks consisting of stimulus patterns and systematic variations of these patterns were designed for each experiment, and…