Peak Shift, Behavioural Contrast and Stimulus Generalization as Related to Personality and Development in Children

Abstract

Fourteen children, aged 7–11 years, were selected from an initial sample of 190 to give a range of scores on the JEPI. They were also evaluated by a Teacher's Rating Scale for neuroticism. The children were trained in a discrimination learning task which yielded measures of peak shift, behavioural contrast and stimulus generalization. Peak shift and behavioural contrast were positively correlated. Neuroticism was positively correlated with both one measure of peak shift and stimulus generalization. Extraversion was negatively correlated with a second measure of peak shift and positively correlated with generalization. With increasing developmental maturity (chronological age, reading age and relative advance of reading age), both peak shift and behavioural contrast tended to be reduced.

Behavioural Indices of Frustration in Normal and Emotionally Maladjusted Children

“…Although such differences are inevitable when an experiment involves the establishment of asymptotic response levels for individual subjects, it is necessaiy to test the possibility that this variable contributed to individual differences in the various behavioural measures. Analysis of the present data confirmed Nicholson and Gray's (1972) finding that length of pre-training was unrelated to the incidence of behavioural contrast, peak shift, mean shift or any of the other behavioural measures studied.…”

“…Apart from the behavioural measures, the only other variable in Table 2 which distinguishes between the two groups is chronological age. Nicholson and Gray (1972) confirmed that the frustration effects declined with advancing age amongst the Normal children. The fact that the Maladjusted boys are significantly older than the Normals (for CA, I = 9-07, p < 0-001) makes their greater susceptibility to frustration the more striking.…”

“…The first of these concerns the mode of reinforcement used in the two groups. Nicholson and Gray (1972) found that, in the Normal group, variations in this parameter produced no effect whatever on any of the behavioural measures studied. Their finding is in agreement with Bijou and Baer's (1966) review of this topic, and has been supported by subsequent unpublished work on the effects of differential reinforcement on normal children within the 7-11 age range.…”

The relation between temperament and rate of temporal discounting

“…When time appears to pass slowly, more impulsive behaviour and a higher rate of discounting are expected. Second, extraverts are characterized by a greater susceptibility to rewards (Eysenck, 1967;Eysenck and Gudjonsson, 1989;Gupta and Nagpal, 1978;Nicolson and Gray, 1972;Seunath, 1975). It well might be that to extraverts, an immediate reward is a stronger incentive than it is for introverts, thereby leading to more impulsive behaviour and a higher rate of temporal discounting.…”

“…An individual is less likely to wait for a delayed reward (thus showing a steep rate of temporal discounting) when the reward constitutes a strong temptation (Mischel et al, 1989). Eysenck (1967;Eysenck and Gudjonsson, 1989) claims that extraverts are characterized by a higher susceptibility to rewards than are introverts (see also Gupta and Nagpal, 1978;Nicolson and Gray, 1972;Seunath, 1975). According to Gray (1970;1981), the impulsivity dimension is based on differences in susceptibility to rewards, with high-impulsive individuals being more susceptible to signals of rewards (and of no punishment) than low-impulsive individuals.…”