Current studies of concept-shift and discrimination-reversal learning in humans are reviewed under 6 headings: (a) partial reinforcement during extradimensional shift, (b) number of response choices, (c) Age X Type of Shift, (d) intelligence, (e) degree of original training, and (f) verbal, perceptual, and attentional factors. In addition, several theoretical accounts of the shift process are considered and an effort is made to evaluate each of them in terms of the evidence presented in the review.
The study was concerned with the effects of 3 variables on concept attainment in an Osier-type concept-attainment task: mediational ability, verbalization, and pretraining. Both pretraining and verbalization had a significant positive effect on concept attainment. However, mediational ability, which was measured by means of a task developed by Kendler, Kendler, and Learnard, was not related to performance on the concept-attainment task. Since successful performance on this task requires that S use verbal mediators, it was concluded that the results of the study provide no support for the hypothesis that mediational ability as defined by the Kendler, Kendler, and Learnard task is a function of the presence or absence of verbal mediating processes.1 This paper is based on the author's doctoral dissertation, written under the direction of N. A. Fattu. The pilot study for the present experiment was undertaken by the author in collaboration with John Murphy as a project for the Institute of Educational Research. Thanks are extended to Mr. Murphy for building the apparatus and assisting in the conduct of the pilot study and to Daphne Marlatt, who served as the second experimenter.
Previous research has established that various measures of moral reasoning and axiological orientation are capable of differentiating criminal from noncriminal populations and between probationers convicted of various types of offenses. Traditional personality measures (such as the MMPI), by comparison, do not seem to discriminate so reliably. In the present study a new measure of moral reasoning, the Moral Content Components Test, was explored as a possible aid for the classification of probationers requiring different degrees of supervision. Two scales reliably distinguished probationers requiring regular or intensive supervision. It was concluded that the test has potential as an aid to probationary classification.
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