Probability learning in children.

Stevenson, Harold W.; Zigler, Edward

doi:10.1037/h0044902

Cited by 99 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Perhaps the most widely documented of these factors is the child's expectancy of success. Specifically, greater maximizing behavior (persistent choice of the partially reinforced stimulus) has been found in children who have come to expect and settle for relatively low degrees of success (7,8,11,25,30). The rationale underlying these findings is consistent with Goodnow's (5) analysis of the determinants of choice behavior.…”

Section: The Journal Of Genetic Psychologysupporting

confidence: 62%

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Curiosity and Demographic Factors as Determinants of Children's Probability-Learning Strategies

Kreitler

Zigler

Kreitler

1984

The Journal of Genetic Psychology

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Children's curiosity, gender, activity level, and socioeconomic status (SES) were related to their performance on a partially reinforced discrimination-learning task. The 38 boys and 37 girls were in the first grade and were all white. Three factors of curiosity (manipulatory, conceptual, and about the complex) were assessed. Performance on the learning task was scored for the number of correct responses (maximizing) and for the frequency of three-step sequences reflecting variability, systematic patterning, and perseveration. In general, the three curiosity factors related negatively to maximizing and perseveration and positively to variability. (The same effects were found for activity level.) Systematic patterning related positively to one curiosity type and negatively to another. Girls used less maximizing and more systematic patterning than boys. The response choices of girls were affected more by differences in conceptual curiosity and those of boys by differences in curiosity about the complex. Activity level was unrelated to gender but differed with SES. The findings demonstrate the role of different curiosity factors in shaping response sequences and suggest some reasons for children's choice of probability-learning strategies.

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Section: The Journal Of Genetic Psychologysupporting

confidence: 62%

“…The standard three-choice probability-learning ap paratus has been described in detail elsewhere (30). Essentially, it consists of a panel with a horizontal row of three black knobs, a red signal light centered at the top, and a hole through which marbles can be delivered into a plastic container.…”

Section: Activity Levelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Curiosity and Demographic Factors as Determinants of Children's Probability-Learning Strategies

Kreitler

Zigler

Kreitler

1984

The Journal of Genetic Psychology

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“…Research on children's learning in situations with an uncertain outcome also explicitly addresses error correction (e.g., Stevenson & Zigler, 1958). For example, Stevenson and Weir (1961) studied preschoolers and young adults in a simple operant task with a partial reinforcement schedule.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Early Development of Executive Function: A Problem-Solving Framework

Zelazo¹,

Carter

Reznick

et al. 1997

Review of General Psychology

540

351

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Executive function (EF) accounts have now been offered for several disorders with childhood onset (e.g., attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism, early-treated phenylketonuria), and EF has been linked to the development of numerous abilities (e.g., attention, rule use, theory of mind). However, efforts to explain behavior in terms of EF have been hampered by an inadequate characterization of EF itself. What is the function that is accomplished by EF? The present analysis attempts to ground the construct of EF in an account of problem solving and thereby to integrate temporally and functionally distinct aspects of EF within a coherent framework. According to this problem-solving framework, EF is a macroconstruct that spans 4 phases of problem solving (representation, planning, execution, and evaluation). When analyzed into subfunctions, macroconstructs such as EF permit the integration of findings from disparate content domains, which are often studied in isolation from the broader context of reasoning and action. A review of the literature on the early development of EF reveals converging evidence for domain-general changes in all aspects of EF.

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“…First, in classic child probability learning studies (Stevenson, 1970), participants made a series of choices between an option reinforced with some probability (100%, 66%, or 33%) and nonreinforced alternatives. Unsurprisingly, child and adult participants selected the reinforced option more often than they did the alternatives (Brackbill, Kappy, & Starr, 1962;Olson, Bibelheimer, & Stevenson, 1967); however, a Ushaped pattern of development emerged, with preschoolers and college students selecting the reinforced option more often than school-aged children, who chose the reinforced option approximately as frequently as it was reinforced (Gruen & Weir, 1964;Stevenson & Zigler, 1958). Second, the Iowa Gambling Task, which recently has been given to children and adolescents, measures how quickly participants gravitate toward safer options while making a series of choices between them and riskier alternatives (Bechara, Damasio, Damasio, & Anderson, 1994;Bechara, Damasio, Tranel, & Damasio, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Decision-making processes: Sensitivity to sequentially experienced outcome probabilities

Boyer

2007

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

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Probability learning in children.

Cited by 99 publications

References 18 publications

Curiosity and Demographic Factors as Determinants of Children's Probability-Learning Strategies

Curiosity and Demographic Factors as Determinants of Children's Probability-Learning Strategies

Early Development of Executive Function: A Problem-Solving Framework

Decision-making processes: Sensitivity to sequentially experienced outcome probabilities

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