Thomas J. Tighe

Breaking the Cigarette Habit: Effects of a Technique Involving Threatened Loss of Money

Participants in a program to break the cigarette habit posted money for a period of either 12 weeks (1965–66 groups) or 16 weeks (1866–1967 group). Participants forfeited their money to the group if they smoked, but earned their money back by completing specified periods of abstinence. Of 25 participants in a college community, 21 abstained for the duration of the program, and the success rates at follow-up periods of more than a year (for the 1965–66 groups) and of 3 months (for the 1966–67 group) from the end of the program are 38 % and 36%, respectively.

Subproblem analysis of discrimination-shift learning

A new analysis of discrimination-shift learning is presented which is applicable to reversal (RS) vs extradimensional (EDS) shift comparisons in which stimulus pairing is unaltered throughout training. The analysis focuses on trial-by-trial performance on the individual pairs appearing in RS and in EDS. Applications of the analysis are presented which reveal that young children are likely to learn the pairs as independent subproblems, while older Ss treat the pairs as instances of a single problem. The former solution mode is found to be correlated with fast EDS and the latter mode with fast RS.

Subproblem Analysis of Discrimination Learning1

Publisher Summary This chapter presents a subproblem analysis of discrimination learning. The subproblem analysis provides a relatively direct measure of the nature of stimulus control in learning problems that have been a major testing ground for theories of learning-theories that differ essentially in conceptions of stimulus control. The subproblem experiments indicate that dimensional control in infrahuman learning is more limited and conditional than generally supposed. While these subjects do not abstract dimensions in the manner indicated by current attentional formulations, neither do they learn in the fully nonselective manner. The research suggests that irrelevant cues exert control in proportion to their discriminability, but that with increasing task complexity subjects may reject or filter out cues less discriminable than the relevant cues. In regard to childrens learning, the subproblem analysis delineates significant and interrelated age differences in selective stimulus control and problem-solving strategies. Isolation of the relative contributions of these factors poses a major experimental challenge.

A Perceptual View of Conceptual Development

Our theoretical and research interests have focused on the interface between perception and learning. This interface poses two fundamental questions: To what extent is learning a matter of perception? and To what extent is perception a matter of learning? Each of these questions requires a consideration of the possible modification of perception through experience, the first because the issue is whether the changes observed in traditional learning paradigms can be attributed to changes in perception, and the second because the issue is whether experience does work enduring change in perception. In approaching either of these issues, then, the starting point must be a consideration of what is perceived in a given situation at the outset of a given experience and what are the possibilities for change in perception. The premise of this chapter, and of much of our work, is that in addressing these questions those working within the learning orientation have underestimated the perceptual possibilities of the typical laboratory task, with the consequence that important contributions of perception to learning and of learning to perception have been overlooked.

The effect of overtraining on the shift behavior of albino rats

Rats were trained to criterion to respond to 1 dimension of a 2-dimensional discrimination and then to respond either (a) to the previously negative stimulus or (b) to the previously irrelevant dimension. One half of the Ss received 200 training trials beyond criterion before undergoing the discrimination shifts. Overtraining had no effect, and (b) was accomplished faster than (a) by both criterion and overtrained Ss.

Overtraining and discrimination shift behavior in children

After receiving 30 overtraining trials in an initial two-dimensional discrimination, 6 yr. old children accomplished a subsequent reversal shift faster than an extradimensional shift. Control Ss trained only to criterion did not differ in speed of learning the two types of shifts. These results are discussed in relation to similar experiments with infrahuman Ss.

Memory for Instances and Categories in Children and Adults.

Abstract College subjects and 7-year-olds were trained in sorting 16 words into two conceptual categories. Training consisted of either three list presentations (Experiment I) or training to solution (Experiment II). Then either immediately or after a 3 to 4 week delay subjects received a recognition test which assessed memory for the instance vs categorical properties of the task stimuli by embedding words from the original list and from the list categories with confusion items from either the same or different categories as those on the original list. The data indicated that learning and memory were controlled primarily by categorical properties of the task items in adults and by specific instance properties in children. However, there was evidence that children had learned the categorical attributes of the task and may have differed from adults chiefly in their failure to utilize these attributes to assist learning and memory performance. The age differences in learning and memory were independent of the degree of initial training.

Sex differences in infant habituation research: A survey and some hypotheses

The literature on infant habituation was reviewed for evidence of sex differences in performance. While a majority of the studies do not report analyses for sex differences, studies finding such differences still constitute a significant proportion of the literature. Twenty-two procedural variables were examined in relation to the varying outcomes of the studies. The findings suggest that sex differences in habituation performance are related to the distribution of habituation training and implicate faster stimulus processing by male infants and/or more complete or detailed processing by females.

Subproblem analysis of discrimination shift learning in the turtle (Chrysemys picta picta)

Turtles were given reversal and extradimensional shifts within a two-dimension (brightness and hue) two-pair discrimination task. Analysis of learning on the individual stimulus pairs during shifts indicated that the Ss learned the pairs as independent subproblems rather than as instances of a single problem.

Concept formation and art: Further evidence on the applicability of Walk’s technique

The Ss viewed five sets of slides, each set consisting of a different painting by each of the following artists: Picasso, Braque, Léger, Morandi, and Carrà. Each set of five slides was presented four times. On the initial presentation S had to guess the name of the artist of each painting. On the next three presentations the E supplied the artist’s name for each painting. The percentage of correct classifications on the initial (test) presentations increased progressively from 17% on the first set of paintings to 60% on the fifth set.