The mental effort requirement of cumulative rehearsal: A developmental study

Three experiments were conducted examining the relationship between the mental effort requirement of cumulative rehearsal and spontaneous utilization of the strategy by children. Mental effort was assessed by measuring the interference produced by cumulative rehearsal with a simultaneously performed secondary task (finger-tapping). It was found in Experiment 1 that second- and third-grade children experienced significantly more finger-tapping interference during instructed cumulative rehearsal than did sixth-grade children, an effect which, Experiment 2 demonstrated, could not be attributed simply to developmental differences in time-sharing performance. In Experiment 3 it was found that, for children in grades 2 through 5, rehearsal set size during spontaneous rehearsal was negatively correlated with amount of finger-tapping interference during instructed cumulative rehearsal, suggesting that spontaneous use of a cumulative rehearsal strategy was negatively correlated with the mental effort requirement of strategy use. These findings support the view that the mental effort requirement of strategy use may influence children's strategy selection on memory tasks.     

Inconsistency and rank preservation

Conditions for rank preservation in a positive reciprocal matrix that is inconsistent are provided. Three methods of deriving ratio estimates are examined: the eigenvalue, the logarithmic least squares, and the least squares methods. It is shown that only the principal eigenvector directly deals with the question of inconsistency and captures the rank order inherent in the inconsistent data.     

The eyes have it: Young children's discrimination of age in masked and unmasked facial photographs

The ability of preschool children to discriminate age, and their use of information from different facial areas in this task, was investigated. Most 4-year-olds were able to rank sets of seven facial photographs into age order successfully. Subsequently, they were presented with facial stimuli in which different regions of the face were masked out. Masking of the eyes produced a marked performance decrement, and masking of the nose and cheeks a slight decrement, relative to masking of either the mouth and chin, or of the hair and neck. Possible explanations of the results are discussed, together with the verbal comments of the children on the cues they were aware of using.     

Novelty responding and behavioral development in young,developmentally delayed children

This study examined whether or not a measure of information processing ability based on the discrimination of novel and familiar stimuli was related to behavioral development among developmentally-delayed infants. Two samples of handicapped infants were administered multiple measures of visual novelty discrimination and a battery of assessments which were representative of available measures of development in infancy. The results indicated that, as a group, the developmentally delayed infants were capable of discriminating novel and familiar stimuli. Also, correlational analyses indicated that responding to novelty was related to developmental accessment performance in both samples. This finding is consistent with previous data which indicates that novelty response measures are associated with important individual differences in young children.     

Age and gender differences in solutions to hypothetical social problems

One hundred and twenty preschoolers and 77 kindergartners individually were administered a measure of social problem-solving. This measure consisted of five stories in which a protogonist sought to acquire an object from a same- or different-age or same- or different-sex target. Age differences in the numbers and types of strategies were few. However, kindergarteners showed greater flexibility in strategy sequencing. Prosocial strategies were more often directed to older targets; agonistic strategies were more often directed to younger targets. Girls suggested more prosocial strategies when girls sought an object from bay targets. Given the results it is suggested that flexibility is social problem-solving and attention to target characteristics should be included in future social problem solving training programs.     

How young children pour equal quantities: A case of pseudocompensation

Two experiments are reported on how 3- to 4.5-year-old children pour equal liquid quantities. An apparent precocity and a decline with age in the ability to judge correctly when different-sized glasses contain the same amount of liquid is demonstrated in Experiment 1. Children of different ages use different strategies to make judgments of equality and this is revealed in Experiment 2. The most primitive strategy fortuitously led the youngest children to make a correct response in Experiment 1 but led to incorrect responses in Experiment 2. Possible explanations of these results are discussed.     

Spatial cognition: gathering strategies used by preschool children

How preschool children retrieve hidden objects was examined in two cross-sectional studies. The first was a simple task in which 1- and 3-year-olds saw two treats hidden in their living room. The newly walking infants generally sought the closer treat first, providing evidence for a least-distance spatial strategy. However, this strategy was affected by a tendency to approach the hiding place most recently baited. Three-year-old children used a least-distance strategy regardless of the order of hidings. In Experiment 2, 3- and 5-year-olds saw 12 puzzle pieces hidden in various containers equally spaced within a naturally furnished children's laboratory. Factors in addition to age were the distinctiveness of the containers and a requirement to return to the center of the array after each retrieval. Overall, children of both age groups were quite successful at this task, retrieving 11 of the pieces. However, 3-year-olds were less efficient, retrieving fewer pieces and requiring more searches. Detailed analyses of errors and patterns of choices indicated differential processes in achieving their performance. Three-year-old children showed the use of memories for events, discrimination of classes of hiding places, and efficient spatial biases. Five-year-old children were more likely to exhibit these processes concurrently.     

Procedures for synthesizing ratio judgements

Requirements which seem reasonable for functions synthesizing judgements (quantities or their ratios), in particular separability, associativity or bisymmetry, cancellativity, consensus, reciprocal or homogeneity properties are investigated and all functions satisfying them are determined.     

Contiguity and contingency in the acquisition and maintenance of an operant

Three experiments compared the effects of nondifferential and differential reinforcement of response location on a circular dimension. Rats were required to operate a vertical joystick to produce food. When food was delivered immediately after responses, but independent of response location, the spatial concentration of responding was low and no progressive changes were observed. Traditional and percentile schedules of differential reinforcement for response location produced highly reliable acquisition of spatially concentrated responding. Once concentrated responding had been established, nondifferential reinforcement was sufficient to maintain it in some subjects. Since only the differential reinforcement schedules established a contingency with respect to response location, it was concluded that this relationship was necessary for acquisition, but that response-reinforcer contiguity may be sufficient for maintenance. This conclusion is consistent with the view that operant conditioning is a contiguity-based process, but that contingencies are required to produce reliable contiguity between reinforcers and particular responses.