Blocking in children from two socioeconomic levels

Abstract

The subjects. 108 4-year-old children from two socioeconomic levels. were trained on a three-phase simultaneous discrimination task. In Phase 1, stimulus element A was reinforced; stimulus element B was held constant. In Phase 2. element B was reinforced on all trials; element A was available and reinforced on 100o~, 75%, or 50% of the trials and held constant on the remaining trials. In Phase 3. the two elements were tested separately. conjunctively. and disjunctively. Lower socioeconomic subjects (a) performed well on element A and blocked element B if element A was available on 100% of the P~ase 2 trials. (b) performed poorly on both elements A and B if element A was 750~ available. and (c) performed poorly on element A and well on element B if element A was 50% available. Higher socioeconomic subjects performed well on both elements A and B under all conditions; however.

Attending, learning, and socioeconomic disadvantage: developmental cognitive and social neuroscience of resilience and vulnerability

“…102 Classic operantconditioning studies on new association acquisition showed that low-SES children tend to perseverate using the same "losing" strategy at testing when preexposed with random chaotic reinforcement. 103,104 Recent evidence supports the hypothesis that cognitive flexibility may be dependent on DA availability in the PFC. 83,84 Consequently, the presence of persistent LI may be due to challenges with cognitive flexibility, since late filtering in selective attention allows an information overflow, which may lead to unconscious associations that are difficult to break (overinclusive thinking).…”

“…Underdeveloped cognitive flexibility is linked to perseveration errors, or repeating strategies that were successful in the past but are no longer effective . Classic operant‐conditioning studies on new association acquisition showed that low‐SES children tend to perseverate using the same “losing” strategy at testing when preexposed with random chaotic reinforcement . Recent evidence supports the hypothesis that cognitive flexibility may be dependent on DA availability in the PFC .…”