Premium
CONDITIONAL DISCRIMINATION IN MENTALLY RETARDED SUBJECTS: PROGRAMMING ACQUISITION AND LEARNING SET
Author(s) -
Saunders Kathryn J.,
Spradlin Joseph E.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
journal of the experimental analysis of behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1938-3711
pISSN - 0022-5002
DOI - 10.1901/jeab.1993.60-571
Subject(s) - psychology , set (abstract data type) , matching (statistics) , discrimination learning , sample (material) , mentally retarded , audiology , cognitive psychology , statistics , developmental psychology , computer science , mathematics , medicine , chemistry , chromatography , programming language
In Experiment 1, 3 subjects with retardation were exposed to two visual‐visual arbitrary matching‐to‐sample problems each day. One conditional discrimination was presented under trial‐and‐error conditions, and the other was presented under a component training procedure. The latter began by establishing the comparison discrimination and its rapid reversal. The successive discrimination between the sample stimuli was established through differential naming. Then, sample naming was maintained in conditional discrimination sessions in which the same sample was presented in blocks of consecutive trials. Block size was decreased across sessions until sample presentation was randomized as in trial‐and‐error training (but with naming maintained). Two subjects initially learned only with component training. The performance of the 3rd subject was inconsistent across conditional discriminations. One of the successful subjects ultimately learned rapidly and consistently with trial‐and‐error procedures. Experiment 2 sought to demonstrate learning set in the other 2 subjects. Elements of the component training procedure were withdrawn over successive conditional discriminations. Ultimately, 1 subject nearly always learned under trial‐and‐error conditions, and the other learned under trial‐and‐error conditions combined with differential sample naming.