A Comparison of the Effects of Reinforcement and Response Cost on the Selective Attention of Learning Disabled Children

Abstract

This experiment, like others in a series by the present authors, examines attentional processes in learning disabled youngsters. This particular study is controversial in that it proposes that learning disabled children may be capable of better verbal learning than they demonstrate -they simply fail to produce, though they allegedly possess the capability. Comments regarding this "production deficiency hypothesis" are invited. -G.M.S. To investigate the effects of reinforcement and response cost on the selective attention and verbal rehearsal performance of learning disabled children, a modified version of HagensCentral-Incidental task was administered to 48 children enrolled in a private residential school for children with learning disabilities. A rein-*A version of this paper was presented at the 84th Annual American Psychological Association Convention in Washington, D.C., Sept. 6, 1976. forcement condition facilitated both selective attention and verbal rehearsal (as measured by primacy effect), but a response cost condition did not. The results were discussed in relation to a "production deficiency' in learning disabled children.S elective attention -the ability to attend to relevant and ignore irrelevant information -has been found to increase dramatically in normal children at about 12 to 14 years of age

The Cognitive Patterns of Israeli Learning Disabled Children as Reflected in the Hebrew Version of the WISC-R

“…It has been found that the LD child finds difficulty in sorting out the abundance of internal and external stimuli, and therefore is unable to focus his attention and concentrate (Margolis 1977). The approach that views the LD child as having problems in his organization patterns and learning strategies but not in his perceptual abilities (Hallahan et al 1978) was supported by this study.…”

“…Mclntyre, Murray, Cronin, and Blackwell (1978) found that the attention span of LD children is very limited compared to that of normal children. Hallahan, Tarver, Kauffman, and Graybeal (1978) reported that as the child grows older, his ability for selective attention increases. He becomes increasingly able to focus on the central stimuli and to ignore peripheral stimuli.…”

Theory‐ and Evidence‐Based Strategies for Children with Attentional Problems

“…2. Increase the frequency of reinforcement to encourage sufficient practice (e.g., Hallahan, Tarver, Kauffman, & Graybeal, 1978) and to help students with ADHD behave more like their classmates (Sagvolden, Metzger, Sagvolden, 1993). 3.…”

Learning Disabilities in Adolescent and Young Adult Populations: Research Implications

“…In previous work with elementary-aged students (e.g., Hallahan, Tarver, Kauffman, & Graybeal, 1978;Haines & Torgesen, 1979), it has been found that LD students' performance on tasks requiring rehearsal can be improved simply by providing monetary incentives. But in Mellard and Alley's complex discrimination learning task, in which students were required to keep track of the status of each of eight bi valued visual stimuli, the performance of LD adolescents was not improved by the payment of cash for good performance.…”