Abstract
This chapter is a broad review of the learning set (LS) paradigm as a research tool in comparative, developmental, and clinical psychology. Its principal purpose is to place in context the contributions to this area of research by George J. Wischner, his students, and his associates at the University of Pittsburgh. During the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, Wischner and his group were among the most active researchers using this learning paradigm with human subjects, including normal children, familial and brain-damaged mentally retarded children, aphasic and nonaphasic brain-damaged adults, and schizophrenic patients. Considered together, these studies have uncovered some new phenomena related to LS, have reported on the effects of several important procedural variations, and have established the sensitivity of LS measures to cognitive development in children, to neuropsychological impairment, and to psychopathology. A number of these studies now exist, however, only in the form of M.A. theses and Ph.D. dissertations or as unpublished manuscripts. Thus, a somewhat detailed review of their nature and content may serve the useful purpose of making them accessible to the scientific community.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Berman, P. W., Rane, N. G., Bahow, E., Age changes in children’s learning set with win-stay, lose-shift problems. Developmental Psychology, 1970, 2, 233–239.
Bowes, A. E., Mastery of varying numbers of early problems as a factor in the formation of object-quality learning sets in two types of mentally retarded children. Unpublished M.S. thesis, University of Pittsburgh, 1959.
Bowes, A. E., Problem difficulty as a factor in learning set formation by children. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, 1962.
Bowman, R. E., Discrimination learning set performance under intermittent and secondary reinforcement. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1963, 56, 429–434.
Braun, H. W., Patton, R. A., Barnes, H. W., Effects of electroshock convulsion upon the learning performance of monkeys: I. Object-quality discrimination learning. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1952, 45, 231–238.
Colletti, R. B., Learning set formation in brain-damaged patients with and without aphasia as a function of problem difficulty. Doctoral dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, 1971.
deHaan, H. J., Wischner, G. J., Three-dimensional objects versus projected color photographs of objects as stimuli in learning-set formation by retarded children. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1963, 56, 440–444.
Ellis, N. R., Object-quality discrimination learning sets in mental defectives. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1958, 51, 79–81.
Ellis, N. R., Girardeau, E. L., Pryer, M. W., Analysis of learning sets in normal and severely defective humans. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1962, 55, 860–865.
Fagen, J. W., Interproblem learning in ten-month-old infants. Child Development, 1977, 48, 786–796.
Filicki, E. S., Learning set formation in process and reactive schizophrenics as a function of paradigm difficulty. Doctoral dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, 1972.
Gerben, M. J., A comparison of the effects of motor and verbal pretraining on the learning of a single Weigl discrimination by normal and retarded children. Unpublished M.S. thesis, University of Pittsburgh, 1964.
Gerben, M. J., Presolution oddity learning set training as a variable in oddity discrimination learning and learning set formation by children. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, 1966.
Gholson, B., The cognitive-developmental basis of human learning: Studies in hypothesis testing. New York: Academic Press, 1980.
Girardeau, E. L., The formation of discrimination learning sets in Mongoloid and normal children. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1959, 52, 566–570.
Hall, R. C., Object-quality discrimination learning-set formation by children with and without central organic involvement. Unpublished M.S. thesis, University of Pittsburgh, 1959.
Hall, R. C., Factors influencing acquisition and extinction of an object quality discrimination learning set in mentally retarded children. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, 1963.
Harlow, H. E., The formation of learning sets. Psychological Review, 1949, 56, 51–65.
Harlow, H. E., Learning set and error factor theory. In S. Koch (Ed.), Psychology: A study of a science, Vol. 2. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959.
Harlow, H. E, Harlow, M. K., Rueping, R. R., Mason, W. A., Performance of infant rhesus monkeys on discrimination learning, delayed response, and discrimination learning set. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1960, 53, 113–121.
Herman, L. M., Arbeit, W. R., Stimulus control and auditory discrimination learning sets in the bottle-nose dolphin. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 1973, 19, 379–397.
Kaufman, M. E., Peterson, W. M., Acquisition of a learning set by normal and mentally retarded children. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1958, 51, 619–621.
Kaufman, M. E., Peterson, W. M., Acquisition of a conditional discrimination learning-set by normal and mentally retarded children. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 1965, 69, 865–870.
Koch, M. B., Meyer, D. R., Arelationship of mental age to learning-set formation in the preschool child. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1959, 52, 387–389.
Leonard, C., Schneider, G. E., Gross, C. G., Performance on learning set and delayed-response tasks by tree shrews (Tupaia glis). Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1966, 62, 501–504.
Levin, G. R., Rapin, I., Costa, L. D., Tourk, L., Acquisition of a learning set by children with communication disorders. Journal of Communication Disorders, 1971, 4, 83–98.
Levine, M., A model of hypothesis behavior in discrimination learning set. Psychological Review, 1959, 66, 353–366.
Levine, M. (Ed.). A cognitive theory of learning: Research on hypothesis testing. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, 1975.
Levine, M., Levinson, B., Harlow, H. E., Trials per problem as a variable in the acquisition of discrimination set. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1959, 52, 396–398.
Levinson, B., Reese, H. W., Patterns of discrimination learning set in preschool children, fifth graders, college freshmen, and the aged. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 1967, 32 (Serial No. 115).
Miles, R. C., Learning set formation in the squirrel monkey. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1957, 50, 356–357.
Miller, N., E., Dollard, J. Social learning and imitation. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1941.
Pascal, G. R., Zax, M., Double alternation performance as a measure of educability in cerebral palsied children. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 1955, 59, 658–665.
Patterson, J. R., The effects of verbal pretraining on the learning of a single Weigl problem. Unpublished M.S. thesis, University of Pittsburgh, 1961.
Pearson, D., Object-discrimination learning set acquisition in young cerebral palsied children in relation to tested and rated intelligence. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1969, 33, 478–484.
Phillips, S., Levine, M., Probing for hypotheses with adults and children: Blank trials and introtacts. Journal of Experiment Psychology: General, 1975, 104, 327–354.
Prior, M. R., Chen, C. S., Learning set acquisition in autistic children. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1975, 84, 701–708.
Reese, H. W., Discrimination learning sets in children. In L. Lipsitt C. C. Spiker (Eds.), Advances in child development and behavior. New York: Academic Press, 1963.
Restie, E., Toward a quantitative description of learning set data. Psychological Review, 1958, 65, 77–91.
Restie, E, Andrews, M., Rokeach, M., Differences between open-and closed-minded subjects on learning-set and oddity problems. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1964, 68, 648–654.
Ricciardi, A. M., Treichler, F. R., Prior training influences on transfer to learning set by squirrel monkeys. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1970, 73, 314–319.
Roberts, K. E., The ability of preschool children to solve problems in which a simple principle of relationship is kept constant. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 1932, 40, 118–133.
Roberts, K. E., Learning in preschool and orphanage children. University of Iowa Studies in Child Welfare, 1933, 7, 3.
Routh, D. K., Wischner, G. J., Effect of verbal pretraining and single.problem mastery on Weigl learning-set formation in children. Developmental Psychlogy, 1970, 2, 176–180.
Schusterman, R. J., Transfer effects of successive discrimination-reversal training in chimpanzees. Science, 1962, 137, 422–423.
Slotnick, B. M., Katz, H. M., Olfactory learning-set formation in rats. Science, 1974, 185, 796–798.
Stevenson, H. W., Swartz, J. D., Learning set in children as a function of intellectual level. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1958, 51, 755–757.
Weigl, E., On the psychology of so-called processes of abstraction. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1941, 36, 3–33. (Originally published 1927.)
Wischner, G. J., O’Donnell, J. P., Concurrent learning-set formation in normal and retarded children. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1962, 55, 524–527.
Wischner, G. J., Braun, H. W., Patton, R. A., Acquisition and long-term retention of an objectquality learning set by retarded children. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1962, 55, 518–523.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1982 Plenum Press, New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Routh, D.K. (1982). Learning Sets. In: Routh, D.K. (eds) Learning, Speech, and the Complex Effects of Punishment. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4196-3_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4196-3_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-4198-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-4684-4196-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive