On discrimination learning trials which allowed subjects to press an information key when in doubt, retarded children made significantly more presses than control groups. Results confirmed the hypothesis that retarded children would be more outerdirected than normal children in a situation in which distractibility could not play a role. (Author/GO)

The ability of preschool children to construct and reconstruct ordered sequences was examined in a series of four experiments. Subjects were 42 children aged 3 to 5 years. The conditions under which reconstruction of an arbitrary series of events is possible are described. (Author/GO)

The effectiveness of mental imagery instructions and picture presentation was evaluated in first and fourth grade children and in adults. Results indicated that the visual mnemonics reliably facilitated cued recall and recognition (but not free recall) in children but facilitated only free recall in adults. (Author/GO)

This study used meaningful pictorial material to compare the functions relating complexity to two different response variables (voluntary looking time and preference) in 192 students from grades 1 to 8. Age differences were slight, and results are discussed in terms of theories postulating increases with experience in preference for complexity.…

This study is designed to test the hypothesis that an inability to separate incoming information into discrete messages is a source of young children's relatively poor performance in selective attention tasks. Subjects were 27 children drawn from kindergarten, second grade and fifth grade classes. (Author/GO)

Investigated the effect of correction and noncorrection procedures on the occurrence of the overlearning reversal effect (ORE) in 80 children 4-6 years of age. Results showing the existence of ORE at the preschool level are explained in terms of a response-switching strategy. (GO)

This study attempted to determine if white noise (an arousing stimulus), when presented at the time of recall, facilitates performance of second and fifth grade students, and if this effect generalizes across different kinds of learning tasks. Findings indicate that white noise produces improvements in performance in both age groups. (GO)

Two studies of 7-year-olds and college students tested the hypothesis of a developmental difference in the degree to which subjects' memory performance was controlled by categorical properties vs. specific instance properties of test items. (GO)

Two experiments examined conditions under which complex discriminative behaviors could be established and maintained by reinforcement given concurrently for performance at related tasks. Results indicated that durable stimulus control of oddity responding could be obtained for two cue dimensions for which oddity responding was never reinforced.…

Two experiments, involving a total of 12 subjects, demonstrated the role of adults as releasers of infant vocal sounds, indicating that both rate and percent of bursts of vocal sounds are increased by adult stimulation. Both response-dependent and response-independent social stimulation were effective when infants could see the adult's eyes. (GO)

Two experiments investigated the role of kindergarten and elementary school children's spontaneous cognitive sets in pictorial discrimination learning. Data indicated that, in comparison to the behavior of older children, the behavior of kindergarteners is governed more by the perceptible than by the conceptual attributes of stimuli. (GO)

This study investigated whether warm or neutral interactions with female models would enhance or reduce the subsequent attention level of 4- and 8-year-old girls. Data indicate that a warm, nurturant model draws more attention from a child at both age levels than a neutral, uninterested one does. (GO)

Two experiments investigated how children (aged 6-8) acquire knowledge of the direct and the indirect object in terms of linguistic marking. The experiments were designed to test the proposition that children should expect a marked linguistic form to be the indirect object. (GO)

Four experiments were performed, involving third, fourth, fifth and sixth graders as subjects. The results strongly suggested a close correspondence between direct and vicarious verbal learning principles and mechanisms. (GO)

Second and sixth grade children solved a series of four-and eight-dimensional discrimination learning problems dictating selection of hypotheses which could be monitored by means of blank trials. Differential effects of stimulus complexity upon the performance of the two age groups are discussed. (GO)