Modes of Solution Used by Children in Concept-Identification Problems

Abstract

87 nursery school children were exposed to a concept-identification problem in which the salient dimension was either also a relevant or nonrelevant dimension, depending on the condition. Responses to 2 of the stimulus pairs were followed by reinforcement while responses to the remaining 2 pairs were not. After acquisition or overtraining the reversal shift was introduced. Nonoutcome trial behavior was taken to indicate whether a conceptual solution, utilizing only values of the relevant dimension, or a nonconceptual solution, incorporating both the relevant and nonrelevant dimension, was attained. While not having any clear-cut effect on over-all performance, dimensional salience and relevance both affected the proportions of subjects solving conceptually and nonconceptually.