Optional shift behavior of children as a function of age, type of pretraining, and stimulus salience

Optional shift behavior was studied within a factorial design involving four levels of age (nursery school children, first-, third-, and fifth-grade children), three types of pretraining (perceptual training, perceptual plus verbal labeling training, and a control condition), and two degrees of stimulus salience (objects vs. patterned stimulation). The perceptual and perceptual plus verbal pretraining procedures significantly and equally facilitated selection of optional reversal shift, and nursery children made fewer optional reversals than older Ss. Degree of stimulus salience as manipulated here had no effect on shift behavior. The findings are discussed in relation to perceptual, attentional, and verbal mediation theories of learning.