Acquisition and transfer of a first-order conditional discrimination in different

Abstract

The operation of each language mode (pointing-observing, speaking-listening, writing-reading) was evaluated during the acquisition, maintenance and transfer of a first order conditional discrimination. Two experiments were planned in which the relative efficiency of each linguistic mode was compared both within and between subjects, with or without the corresponding reactive mode. Twelve 4th-graders of both sexes, aged 8 to12, experimentally naïve, participated voluntarily in each experiment. The experiments were conducted in a test/post-test design for each mode in three learning sequences. The results showed high percentages of correct answers in matching during acquisition, maintenance and transference. This effect was also observed when the reactive component was eliminated. The highest translativity took place from the morphologically most complex modes to the least complex ones, that is to say, from writing to speaking and from speaking to pointing. In the transfer test, the usual result that the level of performance depends upon final performance during the prior training phase, common to all experiments using matching to sample, was confirmed.