No abstract

Seventy-two nursery school children and 72 second graders were randomly assigned by grade level to one of four warm-up groups: (1) orientation relevant, (2) orientation irrelevant, (3) minimal information regarding orientation, and (4) identical to that used by Gibson, Gibson, Pick, and Osser. Subjects were then given the identical form-discrimination task used by Gibson. Nursery school children in Group 1 performed as well as any second-grade group. Second graders in Group 2 made more rotation and reversal errors than nursery school childen in Groups 1, 3, and 4. Nursery school children in Group 1 made significantly fewer rotation and reversal errors than nursery school children in Group 4, and nursery school children in Groups 3 and 4 made fewer errors than either Group 2. Both an attentional factor and concept learning appear to be significant factors in these results.

No abstract

Four studies were conducted in order to clarify the importance of student proctors and mastery performance in PSI systems.

The present study suports an alternative explanation for the results of a well-known study by Pick supporting the distinctive-features hypothesis vs. the schema hypothesis in perceptual learning. The Pick study did not provide a true test of the relative merits of the two hypotheses because more information was given to the distinctive-features group regarding E's concept of "same" and "different." The data show that when equal amounts of information are given, either by using different initial standards or through warm-up, no significant differences are produced.In a well-known study, Pick (1965) presented two opposing hypotheses concerning discrimination learning. The schema hypothesis (Brunei-, 19S7a, 1957b;Solley & Murphy, 1960;Vernon, 1952Vernon, , 1955 suggests that discrimination learning involves the construction of prototypes or models of stimuli. 8 These models are built up through repeated encounters with objects and then stored in memory. Discrimination involves matching sensory input with the stored models.The distinctive-features hypothesis, suggested by Gibson and Gibson (1955) and Gibson, Gibson, Pick, and Osser (1962), proposes that learning the dimensions of difference among objects leads to the improvement of discrimination. Practice, according to the distinctive-features hypothesis, enables S to determine which dimensions or features of a stimulus are critical for distinguishing it from other stimuli. Practice for the schema hypothesis, however, enables S to build and refine schema of the stimuli to be distinguished.