Shift behavior in naive and sophisticated children

Abstract

Thirty-three 3%-to 5%-year-old children learned a conditional discrimination problem involving both reversal (RS) and nonreversal (NRS) paradigms. The performance of children who had learned a reversal problem four months previously was superior to that of the naive children. Although many Es use sophisticated Ss, either by design or of necessity, very little information exists on the possible interactive effects of task variables and the prior experience of human subjects. Typically, in studies with animals (e.g.