A shift in generalization gradients away from S+ and towards stimuli on the opposite end of the stimulus dimension from S- is a well established phenomenon in the laboratory, occurring with humans and nonhumans and with a wide range of stimuli. The phenomenon of gradient shifts has also been observed to have an analogous relationship to a variety…

In three experiments, nine-month-old infants were trained to fixate on a particular feature in a pair of stimuli that varied along three dimensions. In a fourth experiment, infants were trained to fixate on a stimulus compound until reaching a learning criterion. Infants' discrimination learning under these conditions implied an ability to attend…

Examines the importance of (1) dimensional characteristics of stimuli present in discrimination transfer tasks, (2) having contrasting stimuli presented simultaneously, and (3) subjects age. Subjects were rural Mexican youths, ages 4 to 10. Reversal and nonreversal type discrimination transfer problems were used in the study. (DP)

Results revealed that (1) relevant verbal experience facilitated learning only for preschoolers, (2) irrelevant verbal experience did not interfere with learning, and (3) visual highlighting exerted no significant effects. (Author/MB)

In order to examine the nature of dimensional processing in children, 20 kindergarten and 20 third grade Chinese-American children were asked to make similarity judgments for unidimensional sets of stimuli differing in color (hue), size, and shape, respectively. Age differences were generally confined to the color set. The judgments of the older…