| Abstract: | Second- and third-grade children (age 7 to 9 years) received a series of discrimination-learning problems containing verbal probes for hypotheses. The children received either (a) verbal-directional feedback in which the correct stimulus complex was indicated, (b) verbal feedback in which they were told whether they were correct or wrong, or (c) material feedback in which a marble was moved by the experimenter following choice responses. The three types of feedback were combined with three amounts: right-wrong, wrong-blank (blank = no feedback), and right-blank, to yield a 3 × 3 factorial design. Children in the verbal-directional right-wrong and wrong-blank conditions showed systematic problem-solving strategies in about 80% of their problems, while those in the remaining cells showed strategies in only 32 to 43% of theirs. The most prevalent processing error among children in the latter conditions was failure to resample according to a local consistency criterion following errors. |
