Introtacts as predictors of discrimination performance in kindergarten children

Kindergarten children were given simultaneous discrimination tasks with two irrelevant dimensions varying within settings. Prior to each block of eight feed-back trials, the children were asked to attempt to provide a statement of the solution. The introtacts thus provided were found to have several of the desirable characteristics that have been reported for older children with either introtact or blank-trial probes, but which have not been found previously for kindergarten children with the blank-trial probe. Classification of the children according to the trial block on which they first verbalized the correct relevant dimension was found to account for more than 60% of the total variability in discrimination performance. The introtacts were also used to assign parameters to theoretical prediction equations, with nearly two-thirds of the total variability in discrimination performance accounted for by the theory. Extension of the method to other models is discussed.     

A developmental study of the effect of eye movements on the processing of shape information

Three experiments were performed using an aperture-viewing technique to assess the accuracy of shape perception when subjects were required to emit eye movements in order to pick up shape information, compared with the accuracy of shape perception when subjects were not required to emit eye movements in order to pick up the same shape information. In two of the three experiments, we also tried to elicit two different kinds of eye movements which have been suggested as being differentially useful for the processing of shape information. All three experiments explored whether the usefulness of eye movements varied as a function of age. The results of all three experiments indicate that the accuracy of shape perception improves with age under aperture-viewing conditions. The conditions in which eye movements were required to pick up the shape information led to an improvement in the processing of the shape information. This improvement seems to be about the same for both of the eye movement conditions and for all of the age groups tested (4.6 years through 21.7 years).     

The effects of labeling dimensional values on setting differences in shift performance of kindergarten children

A reversal-shift paradigm was used to study the effects of dimensional labeling on the performance of 270 kindergarten children. Task 1 was a simultaneous discrimination problem in which form, size, and color were redundant relevant dimensions, In the shift task, one of the dimensions remained relevant with reward contingencies reversed, and the other two dimensions were made irrelevant. In both tasks, the children named the stimulus object to be chosen, prior to choosing, in terms of one of the three sets of dimensionnal values. Shift performance was predicted to be superior in groups required to name relevant dimensional values in comparison with groups required to name irrelevant dimensional values. Moreover shift performance was predicted to differ, within groups, for four different types of stimulus settings. Fmally, differences in performance on the settings were predicted to be larger for the irrelevant-labeling groups than for the relevant-labelmg groups. The results were found to be in good agreement with these predictions. The findings were discussed in relation to the subproblem analysis proposed by Tighe and Tighe (1972).