Replies to Gholson's commentary (PS 522 655) on the article by Coldren and Colombo in this monograph. Discusses limitations in the shift procedure methodology traditionally used in research on discrimination learning, and considers the use in future research of methodologies that can precisely decompose children's responses to feedback during…

Using simplified reversal treatment consisting of awareness training, competing response training, and social support procedures, minimal results were initially obtained in thumb sucking and hair pulling behaviors. Additional treatment phases involving differential reinforcement and response cost resulted in near zero levels of the behavior when…

This article discusses the waning interests on research-based models. Some experts and program developers say "research proven" programs are getting a smaller and smaller share of the pie under the 7-year-old initiative now called the Comprehensive School Reform program, as schools opt instead for home-grown and commercial programs with weaker…

Background/Context: The nationwide preoccupation with accountability continues to grow, with teacher credentialing programs facing growing scrutiny through state-mandated accountability systems. In response to Senate Bill 2042 passed by the California state legislature in 1998, the California Commission for Teacher Credentialing (CCTC) established…

The purpose of this experiment was to compare components of the human and rat auditory event-related potential (ERP) in a serial feature-positive discrimination task. Subjects learned to respond to an auditory target stimulus when it followed a visual feature (X [right arrow] A+), but to not respond when it was presented alone (A-). Upon solving…

In this article, the authors propose to characterize sequence learning in terms of automatic versus nonautomatic processing and to apply this contrast independently to knowledge acquisition and retrieval. In several experiments of sequence learning, automaticity of both the acquisition and retrieval of the acquired knowledge was independently…

Three experiments were conducted to study motor programs used by expert singers to produce short tonal melodies. Each experiment involved a response-priming procedure in which singers prepared to sing a primary melody but on 50% of trials had to switch and sing a different (secondary) melody instead. In Experiment 1, secondary melodies in the same…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the distinctiveness of stimulus cues on the relevant and irrelevant dimensions - both in original learning and in transfer - on the learning of intradimensional shifts by retarded subjects. (Author)

Five-year-old children who failed pretests of conservation of Number, Length, Mass, and Liquid Amount, but who possessed counting ability and knowledge of the terms "same" and "different" underwent Training and Conservation Posttests. (Author/CS)

Results indicate that children's preferences were relatively stable over time. (Authors/MB)

Study found that stimulus presence during a delay of reinforcement interval enhanced performance, and to a large extent prevented the usual delay-produced decrement. (Authors)

Recent research has suggested that the use of the shift effect as a measure of encoding is critically dependent upon its properties as a psychological phenomenon. Examines this interrelation in light of data from a simple experiment. (Author/RK)

Social-emotional and rational-cognitive explanations of group risky shift on choice dilemmas (hypothetical life situations) were evaluated by comparing shift in groups of low Mach (emotional) and high Mach (non-emotional) subjects. Effects of Machiavellian beliefs on social functioning are examined. Group composition was not observed to affect…

Two experiments with five individuals having severe mental retardation identified some problems and limits in training reversals of previously learned discrimination tasks using stimulus control shaping methodology. (DB)