OBSERVING BEHAVIOR AND CHILDREN'S DISCRIMINATION LEARNING

Abstract

DOCUMENT RESUME 24 CG 005 156 Goldstein, Sondra B.; Siegel, Alexander W. Observing Behavior and Children's Discrimination Learning; Learning Research and Development Center Working Paper Number 52. Pittsburgh Univ., Pa. Learning Research and Development Center. Office of Education (DHEW), Washington, D.C. Bureau of Research. BR-5-0253 Dec 69 OEC-4-10-158 28p., EDRS Price MF-$0.25 HC-$1.50 Behavior Patterns, *Children, Conditioned Response, *Discrimination Learning, *Learning, Learning Theories, Performance Factors, *Reinforcement, *Stimuli In this study, 48 third-grade children learned a successive, two-choice discrimination under one of three conditions: (1) immediate reinforcement (IM) , (2) 10-second empty delay (ED) , and (3) 10-second delay with the discriminative stimuli in view of S (FD). The performances of groups IM and FD were only marginally different, and were both superior to that of group ED. The reversal performances of the three groups did not differ significantly. Average latencies were significantly longer in groups FD and ED than in IM. It was condluded that in group FD a sct to observe stimuli was established during delay which generalized to the preresponse interval and facilitated performance. (Author) U N IV E R S IT Y O F P I R & D C E N T E R W O R K IN G PA PE R 52 O B SE R V IN G B E H A V IO R A N D C H IL D R E N 'S D SC R IM IN A T IO N L E A R N IN G SO N D R A B L E V IN S G O L D ST E IN A N D A L E X A N D E R W . IE G E L U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE Lrs PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT. POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS CX, STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY. **40 re% CD IL/ OBSERVING BEHAVIOR AND CHILDREN'S DISCRIMINATION LEARNING Sondra B. Goldstein and Alexander W. Siegel Learning Research and Development Center University of Pittsburgh