Abstract
The present study investigated the acquisition of visual simple discrimination and reversal learning sets using intermixed discrimination training (i.e., two or more pairs of stimuli presented in the same session) in 2-year-old typically developing children. An additional purpose was to investigate the effects of the procedure on the production of functional classes. The study was a systematic replication of previous research conducted with preschool children. Three children participated in the study. The participants were initially exposed to simple discrimination training with two pairs of stimuli in separate sessions. The next phase involved intermixed discrimination training in which the two pairs of stimuli (A and B) were presented in the same session. After the criterion was reached, the children were exposed to repeated reversals with Pairs A and B. Two participants were exposed to an adaptation of the blocked-trial procedure before being exposed to sessions that presented the stimuli in a random sequence. The same sequence was conducted with three additional pairs of stimuli (C, D, and E), with the exception that all of the participants were exposed to the procedure without the blocked-trial procedure. The results indicated that all of the children learned discriminations and showed decreases in the number of sessions to reach the criterion and errors. The blocked-trial procedure was effective in producing errorless learning during the initial intermixed discriminations. However, during repeated reversals, the effects of the blocked-trial procedure were not so clear, since performance was influenced by motivational and other procedural variables. All three participants showed evidence of functional class formation in some of the reversal phases. Functional class formation was also influenced by the occurrence of errors and motivational variables.
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Daniela S. Canovas and Deisy G. de Souza are members of the National Institute of Science and Technology on Behavior, Cognition, and Teaching (INCT-ECCE). Research and manuscript preparation were supported by grants 573972/2008-7 and 314425/2009-8 from CNPq and grants 2007/00119-7 (to the first author) and 2010/06422-6 (to the second author) from FAPESP.
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Postalli, L.M.M., de Souza Canovas, D. & das Graças de Souza, D. Simple Discrimination and Reversal Learning Sets in Typically Developing Young Children. Psychol Rec 65, 411–423 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40732-015-0116-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40732-015-0116-5