Date of Award
8-1983
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Dr. Jack L. Michael
Second Advisor
Dr. R. Wayne Fuqua
Third Advisor
Dr. Nancy Petty
Access Setting
Masters Thesis-Open Access
Abstract
Pre-school children were taught to emit four-response chains using the repeated acquisition design. Experiment 1 examined the effect of instructional stimuli. Many errors were made in Control Learning, followed by few errors in Control Relearning. Instructional cues resulted in few errors in the morning learning session, but many relearning errors were made. Experiment 2A determined if two-trial cuing with instructional stimuli would improve relearning performance. The result was fewer relearning errors, but the criterion required more learning trials. In Experiment 2B a rule was taught relevant to two-trial cuing. In Experiment 3 a child was told that the morning and afternoon chains were identical. These rules had an inconsistent effect. In Experiment 4 the criterion to end the session was doubled. This decreased errors in Control Relearning, but not Instructional Relearning. The results show a failure to transfer stimulus control from instructional stimuli to the response sequence.
Recommended Citation
Danforth, Jeffrey S., "The Repeated Acquisition Procedure as a Means of Analyzing Instructional Stimulus Control and Rule-Directed Behavior" (1983). Masters Theses. 1609.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/1609