Infant search strategies with containers that move but do not alter the location at which contents can be found

A number of hypotheses about infants' delayed search accuracy have been based upon the notion that a location associated with repeated retrieval of the object attains privileged status. Infants may need strong cues to search at a new location. However, a test is reported in which performance of 12- and 15-month-old infants was shown to be indifferent to the location. The results were reliable at an individual level. The data accord with previous research upon the canonicality effect in infant spatial search, an effect which is taken to index an experiential constraint on spatial discrimination. The experimental design thus serves as a discriminative test between three approaches: the original privileged location hypothesis, a newer spatial-contrast hypothesis, and a wider approach which focuses on experiential constraints on learning, including the canonicality effect.     

“Generalized imitation” on a nonimitative task: Effects of modeling and task history

Two experiments investigated characteristic generalized imitation procedures on a nonimitative successive visual discrimination task. In Experiment I, no discriminative behavior was obtained though a number of procedures designed to enhance discrimination were employed. The introduction of a differential modeling procedure after nine or 10 sessions of nondifferential performance was ineffective in producing differential responding for three of four Ss. In the second experiment, the differential modeling procedure was introduced as an initial manipulation and was successful in establishing discriminative performance in all Ss. After several sessions of differential responding, the observation of a model performing nondifferentially was relatively ineffective in altering the pattern of responding. These results suggest (1) that modeling may be functional in altering a S's behavior depending on what point in the procedures the manipulation is introduced and (2) that certain procedural variables may define a functional response class characterized by the failure to develop discriminative responding.     

Species-typical taxic behavior and event-reinforcer interactions in conditioning

The role of species-typical taxic behavior in conditioning was studied using thigmotaxis (wall hugging) in rats. Running toward or staying near walls in an open-field apparatus was assumed to be compatible with the rat's defensive behavior, and running to or staying in open spaces was assumed to be incompatible. With large food rewards no differences between the center and side responses were found in acquisition under continuous or intermittent reward, but the center response showed greater suppression after contingent punishment was applied on nonreward trials. Two additional experiments showed that differences between center and side responses occur during extinction when avoidance of shock but not when food is the reinforcer. The results suggest that instances of response-reinforcer interactions may be predicted by knowledge of species-typical defensive behavior and that reactions elicited by shock are not always identical to those elicited by frustration in their consequences for the performance of conditioned behavior.     

Selectivity and strategy in early search

Early information-processing strategies were examined in a study of very young children's search for hidden objects. Sixteen younger children (mean age: 1 year; 11 months) and sixteen older children (mean age: 2;6) received search problems in which observational and/or verbal information about an object's location was provided. The question of primary interest was how they would respond when given two conflicting sources of information, which differed in modality (observational vs verbal) and in currentness. Both younger and older children showed some use of an appropriate strategy of relying on the more current information, although they did not follow it consistently. Children also showed preferential use of observational over verbal information and response biases favoring the middle location. Age differences were found in children's use of verbal information, in the degree to which they benefitted from practice, and in response biases. These results suggested a distinction between two aspects of the development of search: the acquisition of new search skills and the establishment of appropriate priorities among skills already in the child's repertoire.     

Mismatching the opponent's offers in negotiation

Mismatching in negotiation involves responding with high demands to the opponent's low demands and with low demands to the opponent's high demands. Prior research has shown that the opponent's demands are often mismatched but that this effect is attenuated when information is available about the outcomes achieved by the opponent from the available alternatives. The present research showed that mismatching was also attenuated when the negotiator knew the location of the opponent's limit (the alternative beyond which the opponent would not concede). Two new interpretations of the attenuation effect were suggested on the basis of this finding. In addition, women were found to engage in more mismatching than men, being particularly likely to exploit a soft opponent.     

Modeling: An analysis in terms of category accessibility

It is proposed that many of the releasing or disinhibiting effects caused by models can be accounted for by information-processing mechanisms, without recourse to the concept of reinforcement. More specifically, it is suggested that the process of viewing a model's behavior involves the activation of an interpretive schema. This renders the information the schema incorporates more accessible for subsequent use. If the schema incorporates (or is closely related to) behavior-specifying information, that information becomes more accessible as well, thus making it more likely to influence overt behavior. Two studies are reported that assessed the plausibility of this reasoning. In Experiment 1 subjects who had viewed an aggressive model perceived greater hostility in the behavior of an ambiguous stimulus person that they subsequently encountered than did control subjects. This finding is consistent with the assumption that the model's behavior activated a conceptual schema for use in interpretation. In Experiment 2 subjects in whom an aggressive schema had been activated under a guise displayed greater aggression in their subsequent behavior in a different context than did control subjects. This finding is consistent with the assumption that activating the conceptual schema also activated behavioral information. The discussion centers on the implications of the findings.     

Effectiveness of social reinforcement as a function of contingent and noncontingent satiation

The social satiation effect is the inverse relation between the availability of a social stimulus and its subsequent efficacy in a reinforcing role. According to a suggested cognitive-interactive theory, the satiation effect is mediated by children's attributions of contingency between their own behavior and the experimenter's actions in the satiation treatments. Perceived contingencies depend, at least to an extent, on actual contingencies, and it was therefore predicted that a satiation effect would be observed only for groups presented in the satiation treatment with noncontingent social stimuli but not for groups presented with contingent stimuli. Middle-class 5- and 7-year-old children were subjected to a 10-min waiting period in which the stimulus word “Yafeh” (“good” in English) was presented 2 or 20 times, contingently or noncontingently. They were then given a 75-trial binary discrimination test: correct responses were reinforced with “Yafeh”. The hypothesis was confirmed in the analysis of variance. However, the predicted difference between the slopes of the contingency and noncontingency conditions was found clearly only in the older sample, while the younger children were more influenced by the number of social stimuli presented in the treatment (satiation) and less influenced by the method of stimulus presentation.     

The effects of prior task experience in the modeling situation

An investigation was made into the effects of observers' previous experience with the experimental task on acquisition and subsequent performance of modeled task behavior. The task was socially neutral and the subjects were second grade boys and girls. Recall of modeled actions increased with prior experience, indicating greater acquisition. This finding supports Bandura's (1973) assertion that task familiarity may enhance attentiveness to the model. Contrary to previous research, performance of imitation did not decrease with experience. The present performance results are possibly due to the ambiguity of the preexperience and novelty of the experimental task.     

The effect of children's spontaneous cognitive sets on discrimination learning

Two experiments investigated the role of children's spontaneous cognitive “sets” in pictorial discrimination learning. Lists were constructed to highlight either perceptual or conceptual similarities among the stimuli. In each experiment age by treatment interactions revealed that in comparison to the behavior of older children (sixth graders), that of younger children (kindergartners) is governed more by the perceptible than by the conceptual attributes of stimuli—data in complete accord with Bruner's view of cognitive development.     

Incentive downshifts evoke search repertoires in rats.

Negative incentive contrast effects (NCEs) have typically been attributed to frustration or the decremental generalization of learned associations. The purpose of these experiments was to clarify the relation of NCEs to the repertoires of functional search behaviors evoked by incentive downshifts. Rats shifted from 32% to 4% sucrose-solution decreased consummatory responses but increased nose-down locomotion, orientation, location entries, and sampling of alternatives relative to unshifted controls. These changes in behavior were terminated or failed to occur under incentive upshifts. Furthermore, reward downshifts did not produce avoidance of the location of the shifted incentive. Increased search occurred whether or not alternative reward locations were available. Together the evidence suggests that NCEs are related to evoked search modes supporting a repertoire of functional behaviors related to finding food.     

Attribution and reconstructive memory

Two experiments were conducted to test the effects of making an attribution on later memory for the event that gave rise to the attribution. Subjects in Experiment 1 observed a scenario in which an actor's behavior was associated with high or low variance (distinctiveness) across situations, and high or low congruence (consensus) to the actions of others. Subjects either made attributions for the actor's behavior immediately following the scenario or not. One week later, subjects were asked to recall consensus and distinctiveness for the actor's original behavior. Subjects who made attributions were significantly better at estimating the high-high and low-low combinations of consensus and distinctiveness than were their no-attribution counterparts. It was suggested that making an attribution may allow for a reconstructed memory for the original event, but not enhance direct access to the original event information. A second experiment tested this concept further by having subjects view an edited version of the scenario in which either the distinctiveness or the consensus information was deleted and having subjects make attributions or not. One week later, subjects were asked to indicate their certainty that consensus and distinctiveness information was a part of the original scenario and to estimate the levels of consensus and distinctiveness. Subjects who made attributions were more confident and accurate in estimating the level of consensus or distinctiveness that was given in the original scenario than were no-attribution subjects. However, attribution subjects were also more confident that consensus information or distinctiveness information was contained in the scenario (when it was not) than were the noattributio subjects. Results of the two experiments suggest that eliciting attributions can distort subsequent memory for the event on which the attributions were based.     

Reversal learning as a function of changed reward location or changed drive

In two experiments, rats were trained with food in one location (e.g., black alley) and water in another location (white alley) under hunger or thirst. Subsequently, either the locations of the rewards were reversed, or the drive was changed (from hunger to thirst or thirst to hunger). Reversal of instrumental responses took considerably longer when drive was changed and rewards remained in the same locations than when reward locations were reversed. These results were interpreted as indicating that the animal's internal representations of the rewards received in each location transfer when drive is changed. These internal-reward representations interfere with reversal learning by eliciting the responses which were conditioned to them in Phase 1. Because the values of food and water reverse when drive is changed from hunger to thirst or vice versa, it was suggested that the reward representations surviving the drive shift are cognitive representations of the specific events received (food or water), independent of the value of the rewards under either hunger or thirst.     

Teaching autistic children to respond to simultaneous multiple cues

A number of studies have shown that autistic children tend to learn new discriminations by responding to only a restricted number of available cues and that this may be responsible for some of their abnormal behavior. Therefore, this investigation assessed the feasibility of teaching autistic children to respond to multiple cues. The results showed that four autistic children could learn a conditional discrimination requiring them to discriminate a multiple-cue complex from each of its two component cues. However, the autistic children did not learn this discrimination in the same manner as normal children. In the early trials, the autistics responded at a higher level to one of the two component cues. Only after many trials did the autistics respond equally on the basis of both component cues. The results of an initial attempt to teach a general set to respond to multiple cues showed that, when an autistic child was taught a series of successive conditional discriminations, the child eventually learned a set to approach new discriminations by responding equally on the basis of both component cues. The results are discussed in terms of understanding and treating autistic children's abnormal development.     

Indirect social influence: Change in judgmental process or anticipatory conformity?

In three experiments, subjects imposed sentence in a criminal case before and after reading the harsh sentence imposed by the trial judge. They then read and imposed sentence in another case. In one experimental condition the subjects anticipated learning the judge's sentence in Case 2; in the other condition they were told not to anticipate learning the judge's sentence. Control subjects made their judgments without ever seeing the judge's sentence. Direct influence was the change in sentences within cases; indirect influence was the difference between initial sentences in Cases 1 and 2. Though direct influence was minimal and not significant, indirect influence was substantial, and was greater in the anticipation than no-anticipation than control conditions, indicating that both modification of the judgmental process and anticipatory conformity were operating. Indirect influence may then reflect a change of either type, depending on a number of methodological and other factors.     

Attitudinal qualities relating to the strength of the attitude-behavior relationship

A study was conducted to examine the relation between each of several attitudinal qualities and attitude-behavior consistency. Subjects' attitudes toward volunterring to participate in psychological research were assessed. The number of experiments in which each subject volunteered to participate was employed as the measure of behavior. Attitude-behavior consistency was significantly related to (1) the amount of direct experience upon which the subject's attitude was based (specifically, the number of experiments in which the subject had previously participated), (2) the degree of certainty with which the attitude was held, and (3) how well-defined the subject's attitude was, as measured by the width of his latitude of rejection. These three attitudinal qualities were significantly intercorrelated, suggesting that direct experience with an attitude object may produce an attitude that is both better defined and more confidently held than an attitude formed through more indirect means.     

Effects of previous delay of reward,generalized effort,and deprivation on impulsiveness

Two experiments investigated the effects of learning and motivational variables upon rats' degree of impulsiveness (choice of a small, immediate reward versus a large, delayed reward). In Experiment 1, food was presented in one of four ways for 24 sessions: fixed-ratio lever pressing requirement, continuous-reinforcement lever-pressing requirement, long intervals between free food presentations, or short intervals between free food presentations. Exposure to the long intervals produced less subsequent impulsiveness in 48 choice trials than did the short intervals, there being no effect of the instrumental requirement. In Experiment 2, there were 48 choice trials in which two hunger levels were combined factorially with two delays of reward for the self-control alternative. Hunger level did not affect implusiveness when there was a short delay, but high hunger increased the impulsiveness when there was a long delay. These results indicate that impulsiveness is affected by prior learning and current motivation. Implications for Baum, Rachlin, and Green's matching formula and for frustration theory are discussed.     

Selective information use and perseveration in the search behavior of infants and young children

Two experiments examined the early development of selective information use in search. The first experiment tested 9- and 16-month-olds on a modification of Piaget's Stage IV object permanence task. It examined infants' use of information from previous experiences with an object (prior information) and from the most recent hiding (current information) to locate a hidden object. In the second experiment, 2-, $\text{2}\text{1}\text{2}$-, and 4-year-old children received these same sources of information along with new forms of prior and current information: information about the typical locations of objects (location specificity) and verbal information. No systematic perseveration was observed at 9 months, although previous findings related to perseveration were replicated. Perseveration was found at 16 months, but there was also evidence of selectivity at that age. When errors occurred, they tended to be to the prior location, but they were infrequent in comparison to correct searches at the current location. The preschoolers, while continuing to show perseveration, were more consistently selective than the infants. They also showed considerable generality in extending their selectivity to new sources of information.     

The effects of setting similarity on children's learning of the transverse patterning problem

A group of 15 fourth-graders were given training on the transverse patterning problem, a task consisting of three different geometric forms presented in pairs. Three other groups of 15 fourth-graders each received training on problems containing the same geometric forms, along with either one (color or size) or two (color and size) additional nonspatial dimensions varying among the settings comprising the different cue-cue patterns. Contrary to a prediction derived from Croll's (1967) extension of Spiker's (1963) theory of discrimination learning, none of the Ss solved the basic transverse patterning problem, nor was there any improvement in performance on this problem after 90 trials. Consistent with predictions derived from Spiker's theory, it was found that the addition of one nonspatial dimersion resulted in solution, and that the greater the number of nonspatial dimensions present, the better the learning.     

Factors effecting nonreinforced imitation: the model as a source of information or social control

Three experiments were conducted with kindergarten, second-grade, and fourth-grade children (N = 208) which investigated whether modelling of unreinforced behavior exerts control over childrens' behavior by providing information concerning other types of behavior more likely to be reinforced or by creating social demands for imitation. After learning that reinforcement was available, children observed an adult model emit a reinforced response or an unreinforced response and then remain to monitor the child's subsequent behavior or leave the situation. Compared to a no-model control, all children except kindergarten girls emitted more reinforced responses after observing the model being reinforced. Only second-grade children, however, showed performance changes after observing the unreinforced model. Second-grade children also only performed what they learned when the unreinforced model was not present. Conclusions were that the unreinforced behavior of the model serves not only as a source of information but also as a cue for unreinforced imitation.     

Competence and processing in children's grammar of relative clauses

We report two toy-manipulation experiments investigating 4–5-year-old children's interpretations of relative clauses. In the first experiment we show that the frequency with which relatives modifying the matrix direct object are interpreted as referring to the matrix subject is sensitive to the nature of the material in the relative. Animacy of the relative direct object leads to an increase in subject coreference errors for relatives; a similar effect of animacy was not found for infinitival complements. We propose that such errors arise when the child's sentence processor is taxed. In our second experiment we compare children's interpretations of relatives to their interpretations of temporal participial complements. Children eschewed coreference between the complement and the object of a passive prepositional phrase in the case of temporal participials but not in the case of relatives. We interpret this result as evidence that children are capable of analyzing relatives as constituents of the NP node, and hence that this node is recursive in their grammars. We discuss the results of both experiments in the context of a two-stage parsing model, arguing that our data fit a picture of children's linguistic abilities in which the 4-year-old has a sophisticated competence grammar and a parsing mechanism of essentially the same structure as the adult's. We compare our approach to a number of other approaches to children's relative clause interpretations in the literature, arguing that these alternatives are too structure-specific and can lead to underestimations of the child's competence grammar. We conclude that our analysis is compatible with a picture of acquisition in which the child's competence grammar of relatives is not qualitatively different from the adult's.