The greater part of this paper is dedicated to a non-technical discussion and criticism of the principles of Skinnerian behaviorism. Various aspects of the theory are examined, and its inability to deal with verbal behavior as a productive and creative activity is asserted. The author's point of view is that expressed by Noam Chomsky in his…

This study sought to determine if there is a change in information processing and channel capacity as the human organism grows older, and if this relationship is altered with a change in stimulus complexity and dimensionality of the stimulus presented. With the human organism considered as a communication system, the use of absolute judgments to…

The norms of behavior and the expectations of a child's primary groupings were examined to determine if they were consistent with those of the larger, more impersonal society. If the norms and expectations were consistent, then primary socialization was likely to be important in shaping the child's sense of nationality. Thus, the school could be…

Three studies of five seventh-grade students (ages 12-14) with emotional disturbances were conducted to determine whether a stimulus class would emerge as a result of one conditional discrimination training using direct instruction (implemented with a constant time delay) augmented with instructive feedback. The students were taught to identify…

Three studies were conducted to explore the relationship between social skills instruction and the maintenance and generalization of skills to post-school environments. Three adult women with severe disabilities in their last year of school participated in the studies. The first study addressed the effectiveness of an instructional package to…

A dominant theme in cognitive psychology is that prior knowledge in long-term memory has a strong influence on an individual's cognitive processing. Citing numerous memory studies with children, knowledge base effects are presented as part of a broader picture of memory development. Using the sort/recall procedure (asking subjects to group sets of…

Ten schizophrenic and autistic children who exhibited self destructive, tantrum, echolalic, and self stimulatory behaviors were treated by reinforcement therapy. Reinforcement withdrawal, in the form of interpersonal isolation contingent upon self-destruction, and electrical shocks served to extinguish these behaviors in some children.…

The effects of observing a model and of providing a response rule on the learning, transfer, and retention of a dial-reading, numerical concept were studied in 144 third-graders. Different experimenters conducted the immediate learning procedures versus the measurements of retention. No extrinsic reinforcers were promised or dispensed. The…

Projects that soon a complete mechanistic understanding of simple forms of learning will be available. Describes some of the recent advances in neuroscience and psychology in understanding the changes in neural circuits that occur during certain behavioral situations. Suggests that learning involves the activation of second messenger systems. (TW)

There is no a priori basis for assuming that theories of social psychology are universal. For theories to be universal, the meaning of the stimulus would have to be consistent across cultures, but this cannot be taken for granted. Cross-cultural variations in social behavior may be "surface" expressions of deep structure norms that are universal.…

Investigates the differential generalization of components within and across functional skills in teaching routines to eight severely retarded students. Finds large individual differences and significant main effects due to type of activity, with a tendency for the same components to generalize across routines. (FMW)

Examines the effects of a stress inoculation program on the aggressive behavior of four behaviorally disordered preadolescent males. Finds that three of the four boys exhibited decreases in aggressive behavior and increases in coping behavior that generalized to nontreatment day school setting. (FMW)

Describes recent research findings in the area of neurobiology and its relationship to learning and memory. The article provides definitions of associative and nonassociative learning, identifies essential memory trace circuits of the mammalian brain, and discusses some neural mechanisms of learning. (TW)

The effect of stimulus familiarity on the comprehension of polar adjectives by preschool children was examined by administering a perceptual judgment task. The children's ability to indicate the correct object illustrating a particular word was assessed. Antonyms representing opposite dimensions of quantity, height, length, or size were presented.…

This study assesses the effects of visual and verbal rehearsal on the problem solving efficiency of preschool children. The study examines the use of stimulus pretraining designed to induce verbal rehearsal and compares the effectiveness of induced verbal rehearsal with the effectiveness of induced visual rehearsal. Fifty-four middle class…