Relational learning and transfer by young children

Gollin, Eugene S.; Schadler, Margaret

doi:10.1016/0022-0965(72)90045-8

Cited by 33 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Discrimination reversal learning is also deficient in children younger than 5 years (Kendler, 1979). In three choice tasks, particularly oddity problems, children younger than 5 years showed response habits such as position and object preservation (Gollin & Schadler, 1972), which appeared to retard or prevent learning of the task.…”

Section: Bell and Liveseymentioning

confidence: 98%

Cue significance and response regulation in 3‐ to 6‐year‐old children's learning of multiple choice discrimination tasks

Bell

Livesey

1985

Developmental Psychobiology

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The learning of multiple choice discrimination tasks of 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-year-old children was compared using the components of learning of cue significance and response regulation. No significant differences between age groups were found in the occurrence of cue significance learning, although the younger children's cue significance responses were less accurately related to task solution. On the two easier tasks, the component of response regulation improved significantly over the age range of 3-5 years. On the two more difficult tasks 6-year-olds' response regulation was significantly better than that of 4- and 5-year-olds. In a second experiment involving two different training procedures, 5-year-olds performed better than 4-year-olds. Only for 5-year-olds was performance with the procedure emphasizing response regulation superior to performance with the procedure emphasizing cue significance. These results are discussed in terms of an association between development of response regulation and maturation of hippocampal-prefrontal cortex systems.

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Section: Bell and Liveseymentioning

confidence: 98%

Cue significance and response regulation in 3‐ to 6‐year‐old children's learning of multiple choice discrimination tasks

Bell

Livesey

1985

Developmental Psychobiology

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“…If this analysis is correct, then we should expect a close correspondence between the age at which children can solve the transverse patterning problem and when they can solve the oddity problem. Gollin and Schadler (1972) 234 JERRY W. RUDY systematically studied the performance of different-aged children on the oddity problem. Just as we found that children less than 54 months do not solve the transverse patterning problem, Gollin and Schadler found that less than 20% of children this age solved the oddity problem.…”

Section: Elemental and Configural Associationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Elemental and configural associations, the hippocampus and development

Rudy

1991

Developmental Psychobiology

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Two views of the stimulus controlling learned behavior are contrasted. On the elemental view, the organism fractionates its environment into isolatable features or elements, and experience alters how it responds by strengthening or weakening associations among the elements. On the confrgural view, it is the representation of the pattern or conjunction of stimulus elements acting on the organism that acquires control over behavior. This paper addresses the issue of how to describe the stimulus from a comparatiuelorganismic perspective and argues that separate neural systems are available that support both elemental and configural associations. Normal adult rats and rats with hippocampalformation damage, and different-aged rats and children were compared on tasks that permit a solution based only on elemental associations and tasks that only can be solved if the organism can acquire configural associations, Subjects in all comparison conditions were able to solve tasks that permit an elemental solution, but animals with hippocampal-formation damage, preweanling rats, and children less than 55 months of age were significantly impaired on tasks that required solving configural associations. Some implications of this data pattern are discussed.Learning theorists have long debated how to best describe the stimulus that controls a learned behavior. Two basic approaches to this issue can be identified (see Rudy & Wagner, 1975 An example will help clarify the two positions. Suppose an organism experiences a compound stimulus composed of two elements, a and b, followed by a third element, c . How should one think about the nature of the associative linkages that are formed between the ab compound and c? Elemental theorists assume the organism fractures its world into independent stimulus elements, features, or attributes and that experience alters how it responds to its environment by strengthening or weakening associations among the elements. In the example, the components a and b independently associate with c. Elemental theorists also assume that Reprint requests should be sent to J. W. Rudy, Department of Psychology, CB-345, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309.

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“…Go/no go tasks, for example, require the withholding of a response in the presence of one cue (SϪ) but reward such a response in the presence of another cue (Sϩ). Studies of discrimination learning in young children make it evident that children less than 6 years of age have difficulty mastering discrimination learning tasks (e.g., Croll, 1970;Gollin & Schadler, 1972;Hill, 1965;Jeffrey & Cohen, 1965;Shusterman, 1963). These children exhibit position habits, response sets, and position and object perseveration.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%