The effectiveness of positive and negative evaluative comments for children's learning was assessed in a two-choice discrimination task. Results indicate that negative comments after incorrect responses greatly facilitated learning while positive comments after correct responses had little effect. To explain the findings, a naturalistic analysis…

The results of a group of studies, the objective of which was to clarify the conditions that account for the effectiveness of verbal approbation, are reported. Among the most significant findings were: (1) that the reinforcement properties of verbal approval are susceptible to distortion, misinterpretation or enhancement and must be applied in a…

THIS BIBLIOGRAPHY LISTS MATERIAL ON VARIOUS ASPECTS OF VERBAL LEARNING. APPROXIMATELY 50 UNANNOTATED REFERENCES ARE PROVIDED TO DOCUMENTS DATING FROM 1960 TO 1965. JOURNALS, BOOKS, AND REPORT MATERIALS ARE LISTED. SUBJECT AREAS INCLUDED ARE CONDITIONING, VERBAL BEHAVIOR, PROBLEM SOLVING, SEMANTIC SATIATION, STIMULUS DURATION, AND VERBAL…

A REVIEW OF THE CRITERIA FOR CONSIDERING THE USE OF A TOTAL ENERGY SYSTEM WITHIN A SCHOOL BUILDING STATES THE WINDOWLESS, COMPACT SCHOOL OFFERS MORE EFFICIENT SPACE UTILIZATION WITH LESS AREA REQUIRED FOR GIVEN STUDENT POPULATION AND LOWER OPERATION COSTS. THE AUTHOR RECOMMENDS THAT THESE BUILDINGS BE WINDOWLESS TO REDUCE HEAT COSTS, HOWEVER, AT…

Internal verbal processes were assumed to play a central role in complex school learning tasks. The research reported was concerned with a certain class of internal verbal behavior. The implicit associative response (IAR) was conceptualized as an internal verbal response that may occur when an individual sees or hears a word. Results of four…

Trace conditioning was evaluated in newborn infants by measurements of heart rate responses to a conditioned stimulus in anticipation of or in absence of the unconditioned stimulus. Data suggest females have higher levels of heart rate variability than males, which parallels their greater conditionability. (GO)

A series of five experiments revealed a striking point-for-point correspondence between the effects of a reinforcer in escape conditioning and the effects of competition cessation in competitive performance. (Author/MP)

Results of an experiment with 6-month-old infants showed that response-independent auditory-visual reinforcement can elicit learned responses and that action-consequence learning in infants may consist of a combination of elicitation and conditioning. (Author/JMB)

A procedure is described that uses operant conditioning principles to shape earphone wearing in block-dropping play audiometry. Vibrotactile stimulation is used as the first step in testing difficult-to-test children. (Author/CL)

A total of 30 infants with an average age of 83.4 days were trained for one l8-minute, two nine-minute, or three six-minute sessions separated by 24-hour intervals in order to investigate long-term retention of operant foot kicking acquired in the mobile conjugative reinforcement paradigm. (Author/CI)