PATTERNS OF EXPERIENCE AND THE ACQUISITION OF CONCRETE TRANSITIVITY OF WEIGHT IN EIGHT-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN

The effects of empirical control vs. no empirical control, and of fixed vs. free procedure on the acquisition of transitivity of weight was studied. The fixed procedure involved practice on the sequence A > B, B > C, A > C, whereas the free procedure merely required the children to order triads of objects according to weight. Around thirty per cent of the subjects acquired transitivity, but none of the experimental variables had any effect. It is concluded that empirical control is unimportant. The lack of effect of free vs. fixed procedure is contrary to some earlier findings with younger children, who profited only from a free procedure.