Abstract
We know that stochastic feedback impairs children’s associative stimulus–response (S–R) learning (Crone et al., 2004a; Eppinger et al., 2009), but the impact of stochastic feedback on sequence learning that involves deductive reasoning has not been not tested so far. In the current study, 8- to 11-year-old children (N = 171) learned a sequence of four left and right button presses, LLRR, RRLL, LRLR, RLRL, LRRL, and RLLR, which needed to be deduced from feedback because no directional cues were given. One group of children experienced consistent feedback only (deterministic feedback, 100% correct). In this condition, green feedback on the screen indicated that the children had been right when they were right, and red feedback indicated that the children had been wrong when they were wrong. Another group of children experienced inconsistent feedback (stochastic feedback, 85% correct, 15% false), where in some trials, green feedback on the screen could signal that children were right when in fact they were wrong, and red feedback could indicate that they were wrong when in fact they had been right. Independently of age, children’s sequence learning in the stochastic condition was initially much lower than in the deterministic condition, but increased gradually and improved with practice. Responses toward positive vs. negative feedback varied with age. Children were increasingly able to understand that they could have been wrong when feedback indicated they were right (self-reflection), but they remained unable to understand that they could have been right when feedback indicated they were wrong (self-assertion).
Highlights
SEQUENCE LEARNING UNDER UNCERTAINTY IN CHILDREN Learning under uncertainty is important because persistent yet vague uncertainties provide continuous motivation for further discoveries, growth, and development (Acredolo and O’Connor, 1991)
We describe previous research on learning via response feedback, learning under biased feedback, random feedback, and stochastic feedback
Lange-Küttner et al Sequence learning under uncertainty in children learn to sequence objects because they would acquire an operational and logical reasoning ability that would develop closely tied to their action schemata
Summary
SEQUENCE LEARNING UNDER UNCERTAINTY IN CHILDREN Learning under uncertainty is important because persistent yet vague uncertainties provide continuous motivation for further discoveries, growth, and development (Acredolo and O’Connor, 1991). That children show impaired performance under stochastic feedback when associating arbitrary stimuli with their responses (S–R learning; Crone et al, 2004a; Eppinger et al, 2009) This approach is extended to another central ability of children, that is sequence learning. Sequence learning under uncertainty in children learn to sequence objects because they would acquire an operational and logical reasoning ability that would develop closely tied to their action schemata. He assumed that children could only truly understand sequences if they comprehended that seriation involved a concept of dimension and scale. If for instance children would understand that sorting objects on a scale according to size either from small to large, or from large to small, has no impact on the dimension “size” as such (reversibility), and that this could be done independently of the kind of objects, children would have acquired a consolidated and generalizable concept of sequence
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