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This study examined the reliability and construct validity of, along with age differences in, a measure of paradigm beliefs about the social world, beliefs that have been proposed to develop across the adolescent and adult life span. The scale is a 27-item, forced-choice preference measure of absolute, relativistic, and dialectical paradigm beliefs. In a series of investigations with 445 subjects, ranging in age from 16 to 83 years, it was shown to have good internal consistency and test-retest reliability, and both convergent and discriminant validities. It predicted performance on an in-depth interview about paradigm beliefs and was related to two other measures of paradigm beliefs. It was not related to selected personality variables (i.e., social dogmatism, intolerance of ambiguity and social desirability); nor was it related to a measure of verbal intelligence. The scale also showed predicted developmental trends, supporting its utility for developmental research.

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In the Monty Hall dilemma, an individual chooses between three options, only one of which will deliver a prize. After the initial choice, one of the non-chosen options is revealed as a losing option, and the individual can choose to stay with the original choice or switch to the other remaining option. Previous studies have found that most adults stay with their initial choice, although the chances of winning are 2/3 for switching and 1/3 for staying. Pigeons, college students, and preschool children were given many trials on this task to examine how their choices might change with experience. The college students began to switch on a majority of trials much sooner than the pigeons, contrary to the findings by Herbranson and Schroeder (2010) that pigeons perform better than people on this task. In all three groups, some individuals approximated the optimal strategy of switching on every trial, but most did not. Many of the preschoolers immediately showed a pattern of always switching or always staying and continued this pattern throughout the experiment. In a condition where the probability of winning was 90% after a switch, all college students and all but one pigeon learned to switch on nearly every trial. The results suggest that one main impediment to learning the optimal strategy in the Monty Hall task, even after repeated trials, is the difficulty in discriminating the different reinforcement probabilities for switching versus staying.

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