4-6岁儿童在小模型旋转任务中的线索学习与位置学习*

以90名4-6岁儿童为被试,探讨了儿童在小模型旋转任务中利用线索学习和位置学习表征空间位置的年龄特点。研究结果表明:(1)儿童对线索学习的利用要优于对位置学习的利用;(2)4岁儿童已经可以使用线索学习的方式表征空间位置,但到6岁左右才开始能够使用基于方向的位置学习;(3)线索特征对于儿童的线索学习有显著影响,明显、突出的线索有利于儿童的线索学习。     

Relations among equivalence, naming, and conflicting baseline control

Three studies were conducted with different groups of 6 students each to explore the effects of training class-inconsistent relations and naming on demonstrations of emergent arbitrary stimulus relations. In all studies, two three-member equivalence classes of Greek symbols (A1B1C1 and A2B2C2) emerged as a result of training in conditional discriminations. Two new symbols were introduced (X and Y), and additional conditional discriminations were trained, whereby X was designated as the positive discriminative stimulus (S+) and Y was designated as the negative discriminative stimulus (S-) for A1 and B2. Conversely, Y was designated as the S+ and X as the S- for B1 and A2. This introduced conflicting sources of control within and between classes. In Study 1, subjects were not provided with names for the stimuli. In Study 2, the experimenter provided common names for the stimuli within each class. In Study 3, the subjects were required to use the common names during conditional discrimination training and test-trial blocks. In all experiments, equivalence responding with respect to the original classes was disrupted for some subjects subsequent to learning the new relations. Furthermore, in Studies 2 and 3, there were frequent examples of noncorrespondence between observed (listener or speaker) naming patterns and derived relations. These results support the view that demonstrations of equivalence are subject to control from a variety of sources rather than being fundamentally dependent on naming.     

Octave equivalence as measured by similarity ratings

Octave equivalence refers to the musical equivalence of notes separated by one or more octaves; such notes are assigned the same name in the musical scale. The present series of experiments was an attempt to determine whether octave equivalence would be incorporated into subjects’ similarity ratings of pairs of tones or tone sequences. In the first experiment, subjects on each trial rated the similarity of two successively presented tones. The results failed to show evidence of octave equivalence. In subsequent experiments, the range of frequency values presented and the musical context were manipulated. Evidence of octave equivalence was found only when the range of tone height differences presented was small; the effect of musical context was negligible. The implications of these results for theories of music perception and recognition are discussed.     

4～6岁幼儿相似性判断与类别判断的知识效应

采用类别知识的分类学习模式,选取72名4-6岁幼儿作为被试,对相似性判断和类别判断的知识效应进行实验研究。结果表明：（1）相似性判断和类别判断存在知识效应。（2）相似性判断的知识效应存在显著的年龄差异,类别判断的知识效应不存在显著的年龄差异;5岁是知识学习对幼儿相似性判断产生影响的关键时期。（3）相似性判断知识效应的性别差异不显著,类别判断知识效应的性别差异极其显著,男孩更倾向于依据学习概念所强调的属性进行类别判断。     

Rhythmic-movement facilitation of learning in working-class Afro-American children

In this study, we examined whether the cognitive performance of working-class Afro-American children could be enhanced based upon a presumed knowledge of the Black cultural experience. Children (6 and 9 years old) learned to match each of 12 pairs of pictures via a rhythmic movement-coordinated procedure accompanied by a musical beat or through a rote recitation procedure. It was expected and found that subsequent retention of the picture matches was superior in the rhythmic movement condition. Moreover, for the younger children, the effect was stronger for those who came from homes providing high stimulation and who had high levels of movement expressiveness.     

‘No fair, copycat!’: what children’s response to plagiarism tells us about their understanding of ideas

Adults believe that plagiarizing ideas is wrong, which requires an understanding that others can have ideas and that it is wrong to copy them. In order to test when this understanding emerges, we investigated when children begin to think plagiarism is wrong. In Study 1, children aged 7, 9 and 11 years old, as well as adults, disliked someone who plagiarized compared to someone who drew an original drawing or someone who drew an identical picture by chance. Study 2 investigated the same question with younger children, focusing on children aged 3–6 years old. Children aged 5–6 years old evaluated plagiarizers negatively relative to unique drawers, but 3–4-year-olds did not. Study 3 replicated the findings from Study 2 and found that children justify their negative evaluations of plagiarizers by mentioning concerns over copying. These experiments provide evidence that, by age 5 years old, children understand that others have ideas and dislike the copying of these ideas.     

ALL STIMULI ARE EQUAL,BUT SOME ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS: MEASURING RELATIONAL PREFERENCES WITHIN AN EQUIVALENCE CLASS

Two experiments used post‐class formation within‐class relational assessment test performances to evaluate whether participants demonstrated preference for certain members of an equivalence class based on the type of relation that existed between class members. In Experiment 1, two 5‐node 7‐member equivalence classes, consisting entirely of nonsense syllables, were established using the simultaneous protocol. Only 1 of the 6 participants in Experiment 1 formed classes. After class formation, the effects of the different relations between stimuli were evaluated using within‐class relational assessment tests, and the 1 participant showed an absolute preference for transitive over equivalence relations, and for baseline over symmetrical relations. Experiment 2 was identical to Experiment 1, except that one of the nonsense syllable stimuli in each class was replaced by a pictorial stimulus. Under these conditions, classes were formed by 5 of 13 participants. During the relational assessment tests, the 5 participants who formed classes demonstrated almost exclusive preferences for transitive relations over equivalence relations and for trained baseline relations over symmetrical relations. Thus, this research demonstrates that the members of equivalence classes are differentially related to each other based on relational type.     

NAMING,THE FORMATION OF STIMULUS CLASSES,AND APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS

The methods used in Sidman's original studies on equivalence classes provide a framework for analyzing functional verbal behavior. Sidman and others have shown how teaching receptive, name-referent matching may produce rudimentary oral reading and word comprehension skills. Eikeseth and Smith (1992) have extended these findings by showing that children with autism may acquire equivalence classes after learning to supply a common oral name to each stimulus in a potential class. A stimulus class analysis suggests ways to examine (a) the problem of programming generalization from teaching situations to other environments, (b) the expansion of the repertoires that occur in those settings, and (c) the use of naming to facilitate these forms of generalization. Such research will help to clarify and extend Horne and Lowe's recent (1996) account of the role of verbal behavior in the formation of stimulus classes.     

4～5岁儿童对社会事件记忆的消极偏向

消极偏向是指相对于积极或中性的刺激,消极刺激能够获得更多的注意和认知加工。本研究采用故事法通过三个实验考察4~5岁儿童对社会事件的记忆是否存在消极偏向。实验一发现幼儿对威胁行为的回忆成绩显著优于对中性行为和助人行为的回忆成绩。实验二发现幼儿对悲伤事件的回忆成绩显著优于对中性和愉快事件的回忆成绩。实验三发现幼儿对威胁行为的前瞻记忆成绩显著优于中性和助人行为的前瞻记忆成绩。研究说明无论事件是威胁性的还是非威胁性的,无论是回溯记忆还是前瞻记忆,4~5岁儿童的记忆都表现出消极偏向。     

教师态度与指导方式对幼儿坚持性影响的实验研究

本研究采用3×2×2(年龄×教师态度×言语指导方式)三因素完全随机实验设计,考察了教师态度和言语指导对3~6岁幼儿坚持性的影响。其中幼儿年龄、教师态度及言语指导方式为实验的自变量,幼儿坚持完成任务的时间为实验因变量,设计4种实验情境,并随机选择沈阳市两所幼儿园,分层选取小、中、大班的幼儿作为实验研究的被试,年龄分布在3~6岁之间,每种情境下每个年龄段的有效被试各为30人,男女各半,共360人。研究结果表明:(1)3~6岁幼儿的坚持性随着年龄的增长而逐渐发展,且4~5岁是幼儿坚持性发展的转折期;(2)不同的教师态度对幼儿的坚持性影响显著;(3)不同的言语指导方式对幼儿坚持性影响显著;(4)教师积极态度下,多次言语指导对幼儿的坚持性会产生最积极的影响。     

Simple discrimination training with differential responses to establish functional and equivalence classes with preschool children

The present study assessed whether simple discrimination training with differential responses would produce functional and equivalence classes with preschool children. In Experiment 1, we exposed 10 children to simple successive discrimination training in which they had to press different buttons (selection‐based responses). Response 1 (R1) was reinforced only in the presence of A1, B1, or C1, and Response 2 (R2) was reinforced only in the presence of A2, B2, or C2. We assessed the formation of functional classes by training new selection responses in the presence of one member of each class (A1‐R3, A2‐R4) and testing to see if these responses would occur in the presence of other members. Eight children responded consistently with functional class formation. Four of these eight children also responded consistently with the formation of equivalence classes. Experiment 2 investigated whether differential motor responses (i.e., gestures) would improve equivalence class yields. Three of six children showed both functional and equivalence class formation. In general, the results indicate that the simple discrimination procedure with differential responses yielded functional and equivalence class formation.     

Learning non-local dependencies

This paper addresses the nature of the temporary storage buffer used in implicit or statistical learning. Kuhn and Dienes [Kuhn, G., and Dienes, Z. (2005). Implicit learning of nonlocal musical rules: implicitly learning more than chunks. Journal of Experimental Psychology-Learning Memory and Cognition, 31(6) 1417-1432] showed that people could implicitly learn a musical rule that was solely based on non-local dependencies. These results seriously challenge models of implicit learning that assume knowledge merely takes the form of linking adjacent elements (chunking). We compare two models that use a buffer to allow learning of long distance dependencies, the Simple Recurrent Network (SRN) and the memory buffer model. We argue that these models - as models of the mind - should not be evaluated simply by fitting them to human data but by determining the characteristic behaviour of each model. Simulations showed for the first time that the SRN could rapidly learn non-local dependencies. However, the characteristic performance of the memory buffer model rather than SRN more closely matched how people came to like different musical structures. We conclude that the SRN is more powerful than previous demonstrations have shown, but it's flexible learned buffer does not explain people's implicit learning (at least, the affective learning of musical structures) as well as fixed memory buffer models do.     

Effects of musical context, type of vocal presentation, and time on the verbal retention abilities of visual-spatially oriented and verbally oriented learning disabled children

This study sought to determine if the retention capacities of learning disabled children with strong visual-spatial skills and weak verbal skills would be improved if verbal material was presented within a musical context. It also sought to determine if children with the reverse pattern of abilities would retain less verbal information if it was presented in a context of music. Twelve verbally oriented and 12 visual-spatially oriented learning disabled children between the ages of 9 and 11 matched on IQ, sex, race, and age participated. Subjects listened in a counter-balanced fashion to: (a) lyrics sung with instrumental musical accompanimen; (b) lyrics sung without instrumental accompaniment; (c) lyrics spoken with instrumental musical accompaniment; and (d) lyrics spoken without musical accompaniment. Immediately following the presentation of each condition they were tested for recall and recognition of the verbal material contained in the lyrics. The same tests were administered three days later. Subjects in the visual-spatial group obtained significantly higher recognition scores when the lyrics were sung than when they were spoken whether instrumental musical accompaniment was or was not present. Scores of the verbally oriented group did not differ across conditions. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.     

On the effectiveness of including meaningful pictures in the formation of equivalence classes

In three experiments, 165 adult participants were trained on 12 baseline conditional discriminations and tested for the formation of three 5-member equivalence classes (A➔B➔C➔D➔E). All experiments included two reference groups; the abstract (ABS) group was trained with all abstract stimuli and the picture (PIC) group with C-stimuli as meaningful pictorial stimuli but A, B, D, and E stimuli as abstract shapes. In Experiment 1, the color of the meaningful stimuli was manipulated. In the ABS, PIC, and black-and-white groups, 33.3%, 80%, and 93.3% formed equivalence classes, respectively. In Experiment 2, participants were exposed to a test block with and without trials that included C stimuli. For the groups with and without C trials in the test, 93.3% and 86.7% formed equivalence classes, respectively, compared to 20% in the ABS group. In Experiment 3, the number of meaningful pictures and their location in stimulus classes were manipulated. One group was trained with 3 pictures (C1/B2/D3, the 3-PIC) while the other groups had 2 pictures (C1/B2 and C1/D3, the 2-PIC). In the second test block for the ABS and PIC groups, 6.7% and 86% of the participants formed equivalence classes, respectively. For the 3-PIC and the 2-PIC groups, 66.7% and 50% of the participants formed equivalence classes, respectively. Results suggest that the effects of meaningful stimuli in equivalence classes (a) cannot be attributed to the use of colorful stimuli in previous studies, (b) occur during training and are not dependent on the presence of meaningful stimuli at test, and (c) are sensitive to stimulus location.     

Effects of exemplar training in exclusion responding on auditory-visual discrimination tasks with children with autism

In Experiment 1 with 7 autistic children (3 to 6 years old), auditory-visual exclusion was tested with four unknown word-item pairs for each child. One child demonstrated exclusion and positive learning outcomes unequivocally with the four auditory-visual relations. Three children demonstrated exclusion, though inconsistently, and failed to demonstrate positive learning outcomes. The remaining 3 children failed to demonstrate exclusion; therefore, the learning outcome test was omitted. The 6 children who failed to demonstrate exclusion or positive learning outcomes participated in the second experiment. In Experiment 2, nonreinforced exclusion trials with four new unknown word-item pairs were included in trial blocks that also contained reinforced exclusion trials with the unknown exemplars from Experiment 1. Five children demonstrated exclusion with the new word-item pairs, and 4 of these demonstrated positive learning outcomes in further tests. One child demonstrated some limited but inconsistent improvement in exclusion and was not tested for learning outcomes. The data suggest that contemporaneous presentation of multiple examples of reinforced exclusion facilitated nonreinforced exclusion performances and that the resulting reduction in errors was critical in producing accurate learning outcomes with the new word-item discriminations.     

Development of visual cognition: Transfer effects of the Agam program

The Agam program was designed to foster visual thinking in young children by developing their visual language. This curriculum was implemented in five nursery classes for 2 consecutive school years. Children in these classes were compared with children in classes where the program was not administered. It was hypothesized that the generative nature of the visual language developed in the experimental children would allow the children to extend the language learned to new situations and help them to solve problems in which no prior training was given. Test results confirmed this hypothesis: The effects of training in the Agam program transferred to cognitive domains in which no training was given. Specifically, the findings indicated positive effects on general intelligence and school readiness of children about to enter first grade, with especially pronounced effects in the areas of arithmetic and writing readiness. Other findings revealed an increased visual learning ability in new tasks that developed in the experimental children. Training effects did not transfer to mental rotation and to memory for realistic designs. The program was found to be equally effective for lower-class as for middle-class children. The effect of the program was greater for children who participated in the program for 2 years as compared with those who joined in the second year, indicating a cumulative effect of the program. This latter finding can also be used to refute an alternative explanation of the obtained experimental effects offered by a motivational theory. The findings on cognitive transfer, taken together with previously reported on concept learning and visual skills, point to the educational potential of the approach advocated by the Agam program, that is, systematic long-term instruction in the domain of visual cognition in early childhood.     

A developmental study of the affective value of tempo and mode in music

Do children use the same properties as adults in determining whether music sounds happy or sad? We addressed this question with a set of 32 excerpts (16 happy and 16 sad) taken from pre-existing music. The tempo (i.e. the number of beats per minute) and the mode (i.e. the specific subset of pitches used to write a given musical excerpt) of these excerpts were modified independently and jointly in order to measure their effects on happy-sad judgments. Adults and children from 3 to 8 years old were required to judge whether the excerpts were happy or sad. The results show that as adults, 6--8-year-old children are affected by mode and tempo manipulations. In contrast, 5-year-olds' responses are only affected by a change of tempo. The youngest children (3--4-year-olds) failed to distinguish the happy from the sad tone of the music above chance. The results indicate that tempo is mastered earlier than mode to infer the emotional tone conveyed by music.     

Contextual control of equivalence-based transformation of functions

The transformation of functions refers to the untrained acquisition of stimulus functions among members of stimulus equivalence classes or relational frames. Although it is widely assumed that contextual control over the transformation of fuctions must exist, this has not yet been conclusively demonstrated in laboratory studies. Four experiments are reported in which (a) stimulus equivalence classes were established, (b) a conditional stimulus function was trained for one member of each of the classes, and (c) multiple-exemplar procedures were used to train and test for contextual control over the transformation of the stimulus function within the classes and to assess whether it generalized to new equivalence classes. Although a significant amount of training was required, the procedures ultimately resulted in the contextual control of function transformation for 9 of 10 participants and generalized contextual control for 4 of 5 participants.     

Effects of within-class differences in sample responding on acquired sample equivalence

Two experiments examined whether acquired sample equivalence in many-toone matching was affected by variation in sample-response requirements. In each experiment, pigeons responded on either identical or different response schedules to the sample stimuli that occasioned the same reinforced comparison choice (i.e., to the within-class samples). Transfer-of-control tests were then conducted to determine acquired equivalence, or lack thereof, between these samples. In both experiments, there was minimal or no evidence of acquired sample equivalence when pigeons responded differently to the samples within each common-choice class. By contrast, transfer was observed if pigeons responded (a) identically to all sample stimuli, or (b) identically to samples within each common-choice class (viz., to samples that occasioned the same reinforced choice) and differently to samples from different classes (viz., to samples that occasioned different choices). These results may help to explain the recent lack of evidence for response membership in pigeons' acquired equivalence (Urcuioli, Lionello-DeNolf, Michalek, & Vasconcelos, 2006). They also raise questions about the functional sample stimuli and about possible interactions between acquired equivalence and acquired distinctiveness.