Alternation in a spatial orientation task

Abstract

Normal first through fifth graders and adolescent retardates were given a difficult binary-choice spatial orientation task. Mean errors decreased with age. Retardates performed somewhat poorer than their MA normal equivalents. Alternation behavior generally decreased with age with the important exception that the retardates alternated significantly more than any other group. Many retardates exhibited invariant alternation. Both normal children and retardates alternated above chance.

Facilitation of concept formation in children by the use of color cues.

“…Jeffrey and Cohen (1965), Rieber (1966), and Schusterman (1963) found that in a two-choice situation, young children tended to single alternate spontaneously, even when they were rewarded for either positional choice. Gerjuoy, Winters, and Hoats (1966) reported alternation behavior in first through fifth graders, and found that this tendency to alternate decreased with age. Since SA is high in their response hierarchy, young children should learn a task requiring SA with little difficulty.…”

Response preference and choice-sequence preferences: I. Regression to alternation

“…Regardless of the reinforcement schedule these populations utilize alternation more than any other response sequence. When retardates do try some other strategy and receive nonreinforcement, they will switch to alternation even if it does not improve their percentage of reinforcements.In order to test the hypothesis that retardates and normal children choose this lower form of behavior in an objectively soluble binary-choice task that is too difficult for them to solve, first-through fifth-grade normal children and adolescent educable retardates were administered a spatial orientation task (Gerjuoy, Winters, & Hoats, 1966) in which they were required to respond "left" or "right" at each choice point of the Road Map Test (Money, 1965). Only the fourth-and fifth-graders and the retardates had significantly fewer errors than chance.…”