An ecological approach to learning

This paper introduces a special journal issue devoted to the study of learning in ecological and developmental contexts. In the past, the dominant approach to the study of learning has depended upon the choice of arbitrary problems, stimuli, and responses to guarantee the generality of principles discovered in the laboratory. Recently, though, there has been considerable interest in integrating an ecological (functional) account of learning with the strengths of the classic laboratory approach. One form of integration is to use the technology of the laboratory to look for the operation of general learning laws in ecological problems. The approach favored here is to treat learning as a biological phenomenon by first placing it within a functional system of behavior, and then by analyzing where and how learning modifies the operation of that system. Because the results of such analyses are defined with respect to functioning systems rather than procedural paradigms, the ecological approach readily makes contact with issues in evolution, development, and physiology, an ability not completely shared by the classic general-process approach. Concerns about laboratory versus field, function versus mechanism, generality of results, and adaptive “storytelling” can be resolved or further clarified by the present approach. The papers in this issue represent a cross-section of research stemming from an ecological approach to learning, and provide specific analyses of how learning modifies and is expressed in functional systems of behavior.     

Memory for faces: A social learning analysis

Recognition memory for unfamiliar faces was related to locus of control and anxiety. On the basis of Rotter's social learning theory, it was predicted that memory for faces would be associated with more internal locus of control in an unstructured memory task but not when encoding was controlled. In Experiment 1, where no specific instructions about encoding were presented, the predicted relationship was found for males. In addition, better recognition was associated with low anxiety for females. In Experiment 2, where encoding was controlled by having subjects judge the faces, no significant correlations between the personality measures and memory were found. The results are interpreted as supporting predictions made on the basis of social learning theory.     

Progressive dysfluency associated with right hemisphere disease

A late onset progressive dysfluency following a right hemisphere stroke occurred in a 62-year-old male. Dysfluency was characterized by pronounced word and phrase reiterations, and sound and syllable reiterations to a lesser degree. Spontaneous speech was significantly more dysfluent than oral reading and repetition. Recitation and singing were minimally dysfluent. Reiterations were accompanied by reduced vocal loudness and increased rate of speech. Reiterations occurred in initial, medial, and final sentence position. Secondary symptoms such as facial grimacing were absent. In contrast to acquired cortical stuttering which is characterized by a preponderance of sound and syllable sentence initial repetitions, dysfluency was more closely characteristic of palilalia. The dysfluency occurred as a symptom of a diffuse nonspecific subcortical projection system defect related to massive infarction in the right middle cerebral artery distribution with associated atrophy.     

Social group salience and interethnic cooperation

This research was designed to test the adequacy of H. Tajfel's (1978, Differentiation between social groups: Studies in the social psychology of intergroup relations, New York/London: Academic Press) theory of social identity for predicting cooperative behavior among members of ethnically mixed groups. Equally divided by sex, subjects were 24 Anglo-American and 24 Hispanic undergraduate students attending the University of California, Riverside. Subjects were exposed to cooperative and competitive feedback in four-member, same-sex groups which varied in the ratio of Anglo to Hispanic subjects to create two conditions—a 3 to 1 versus a 1 to 3 in-group to out-group composition. Results showed that members of both ethnic groups were equally cooperative when their own group was in the numerical majority (low-salience condition). In the high-salience condition, however, when their own group was in the numerical minority, Hispanic subjects were significantly more competitive than Anglo subjects. In addition, while Hispanics were significantly more competitive in the minority than in the majority condition, Anglos showed a slight tendency to be less competitive in the minority than in the majority condition. These results are discussed in light of social identity theory and its application to the study of interethnic cooperation/competition in heterogeneous groups.     

A model of three-choice discrimination learning under complete and incomplete feedback conditions

The Bower and Trabasso model of concept identification was extended to cover problems in which three stimuli were presented simultaneously and S pointed to the one he thought was correct. The E gave complete feedback by indicating the correct stimulus, or incomplete feedback by saying “correct” or “wrong.” The model accurately accounted for the significant difference in total errors between the two feedback conditions by incorporating process assumptions reflecting the logical difference in information content of the two types of feedback. Using a single set of parameter estimates, the model made satisfactory quantitative predictions of several statistics for both feedback conditions. Some deviations from the model's predictions were found in the length of terminal error runs, indicating that Ss were possibly using memory more extensively than posited by the model.     

Analysis of memory codes and cumulative rehearsal in observational learning

The present study examined the influence of memory codes varying in meaningfulness and retrievability and cumulative rehearsal on retention of observationally learned responses over increasing temporal intervals. Symbolic codes combining meaningfulness with retrievability produced superior memory performances, but responses were poorly retained in symbolic representations containing only one of these properties. Individual response analysis further confirmed that the more meaningful the codes incorporating retrieval guides the better are modeled responses learned and retained. Cumulative rehearsal had differential effects on memory performances depending upon the serial input position of the responses and the form into which the modeled behavior was encoded. Code rehearsals facilitated retention of early and intermediate responses which were repeated more than later ones, but this was true mainly for codes vulnerable to loss. The overall findings provide further corroborative evidence that memory performances are governed more by information coding than by associative strengthening processes.     

Nonverbal communication of couples in conflict

This article examined the rates, contextual meanings, and attributional meanings of nonverbal behavior occurring during role-played conflict between dating couples. Eighty couples reported perceptions of their own behaviors and their partners' behaviors and were observed in a laboratory setting by trained raters. The nonverbal channel was used significantly more by females than by males and to express approval rather than disapproval. However, the nonverbal-disapproval summary category demonstrated weak validity. Eye contact had the most complex, unexpected contextual meanings. Reduced eye contact appeared to variously convey disapproval, cues of lower interpersonal power, and a reduction of intimacy to compensate for accompanying increases in other approval behaviors. Despite significant correlations between nonverbal and verbal behaviors, dating partners rarely based their perceptions of their behavior or their partners' behavior upon their rates of nonverbal behaviors.     

Generality of persistence: The role of stimulus and response factors in persistence to punishment

Previous research has shown that intermittent punishment of a response increases its persistence to continuous punishment and that intermittent punishment training in one situation produces persistence to continuous punishment in other situations. Experiment 1 showed that as long as the instrumental response and punishing stimulus were held constant from intermittent to continuous punishment marked differences between these situations had no decremental effect on persistence. Experiment 2 showed that intermittent punishment training of one response resulted in substantial persistence to continuous punishment of a different and apparently incompatible response and that such response change had no more than a marginal effect on persistence. The results were seen as requiring some revision to the traditional conditioning-model interpretation of persistence to punishment.     

Knowledge of one's own responding and the relation of such knowledge to learning: A developmental study

First-, third-, fifth-grade children, and college students (ages 6, 8, 10, and 19 years) acquired a paired-associate list under the study-test procedure to a one error-less trial criterion. In addition, as each pair was presented the individual indicated whether he/she had that pair correct on the immediately preceding trial (postdiction responses). The data were interpreted in terms of a discrimination-utilization hypothesis which postulates that individuals discriminate their own correct and incorrect responses on a given trial and use this information for distributing processing effort on the subsequent trial. Analyses involving the accuracy of postdiction responses, the relation of postdiction accuracy to acquisition, and the consideration of the acquisition data in terms of a two-stage model led to the conclusion that older children and adults may use the discrimination-utilization strategy but younger children tend not to use it, probably because of both mediation and production deficiencies.     

Categorical and spatial modes of representation in young children's recall

Preschool children aged 4 and 6 were asked to recall a set of line drawings under two conditions: pictures blocked in category groups, and pictures blocked in noncategory groups. For 4-year-olds, the blocking condition made no difference in the structure of their recall; but for the 6-year-olds, the category blocking served as a support for category clustering of their recall lists. No purely spatial clustering appeared at either age. It was concluded that 6-year-olds' use of classes is closely linked to concrete spatial arrangement of objects.     

Social influence via threats

Influence via threats was investigated in correspondent relationships (characterized by commonality of interest) and in noncorrespondent relationships (characterized by conflict of interest). In addition, the degree of informational power attributed by the influencee to the influencer and to himself, and the severity of threats used by the influencer were manipulated. The results point to the existence of two qualitatively different processes of influence. In correspondent relationships, threats are viewed as conveying the influencer's belief about the choice of action that would benefit both parties to the relationship. Further, the more severe the threat, the more confident the influencer would appear to be of his choice of action. As a result, the influencee's willingness to rely on the influencer's judgment, as conveyed by the threat, becomes an important aspect of the influence process. Such willingness is affected by the influencee's attribution of informational power to the influencer and to himself. In noncorrespondent relationships, on the other hand, suspicion and mutual distrust preclude reliance on threats as sources of information. Under such circumstances, social influence via threats becomes a simple process of coercion.     

The relative contributions of predictiveness and salience in flavor aversion learning

Two experiments investigated the relative influence of cue predictiveness and stimulus salience on flavor aversion learning. In the first study experimental subjects experienced a nonsalient strawberry flavor and a different, more salient flavor prior to illness on each of the first three conditioning trials; the nonsalient strawberry and salient lemon were paired with illness on the fourth trial. This treatment resulted in a strong aversion to the strawberry flavor and on aversion to the lemon flavor. In contrast, animals which had experienced only a single pairing of strawberry, lemon, and illness acquired a strong aversion to lemon and no aversion to strawberry, while animals which had experienced only the pairing of different flavors and illness on each of the first three trials developed a strong aversion to both strawberry and lemon. Experiment 2 replicated the results of the experimental condition of the first study but also included a “blocking” condition in which subjects received three strawberry and illness pairings prior to a strawberry-lemon-illness pairing. Subjects in the blocking condition developed only a weak aversion to strawberry, and this aversion did not block the development of a strong lemon aversion. Apparently, in order for a nonsalient flavor cue to block the acquisition of an aversion to a more salient cue, the nonsalient flavor must not only be paired with illness but also be more predictive of illness than the more salient flavors also paired with illness. The data were discussed in terms of the R. A. Rescorla and A. R. Wagner's associative model (1972, in Classical conditioning II: Current research and theory, New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts), R. A. Rescorla's catalytic model (1982, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes,8, 131–141), and N. J. Mackintosh's attentional model (1975, Psychological Review,82, 276–298) of conditioning.     

The role of self-produced movement and visual tracking in infant spatial orientation

In two longitudinal studies, infants were trained at 12 and 18 months to find an object hidden in one of two identical wells in a Plexiglas box. On the test trial, normal access was blocked and infants were either guided by their mother or allowed to move on their own to another opening on the opposite side. In Experiment 1 significantly more correct responding occurred after active movement than after passive at 12 months, with correct responding related to high visual tracking. In contrast, at 18 months correct search without tracking predominated among both movement conditions. A difference between the conditions in the position of the mother on the test trial was ruled out as a contributor to performance on the basis of data from Experiment 2. When opaque sides were inserted to prevent tracking in Experiment 3, active movement no longer facilitated correct search at 12 months, thus indicating that the tracking and not the active movement per se was the critical factor.     

Transfer of training following discrimination learning with two reinforced responses

Pigeons were given errorless discrimination training between chromatic stimuli with a specific reinforced response associated with each discriminative stimulus. These Ss subsequently acquired a successive go/no-go auditory discrimination (utilizing one response class) faster than Ss given single stimulus training. These results are more compatible with an explanation of transfer of training in successive operant discrimination learning based on general attention than one based on withholding responses.     

Interest inventories based on Roe's classification modified for negative respondents

The Ramak and Courses interest inventories (Meir, 1974; Meir, Sohlberg, & Barak, 1973) based on Roe's 1956 occupational classification, were modified for use with subjects who answer negatively to most items in the traditional forms. One hundred thirty-six males, aged 19–21, responded to the Ramak and Courses inventories with the R ? A (Refuse, Undecided, Agree) scale. The split half reliability of the modified inventories is 0.75, and their occupational structure has the same shape and arrangement as the inventories with the Y ? N scale. Negative respondents give more positive responses (p < .05) on the modified forms than on the traditional ones.