Effect of overtraining of three discrimination shifts in children.

Abstract

After discriminative learning to criterion (CR) or overtraining (OT), 6 groups of grade-school children performed reversal (RV), intradimensional (ID), or extradimensional (EX) shift. The relative ease of ID shift suggested the operation of a dimension-specific mediator which, coupled with an increased discrimination of reinforcement change, facilitated RV shift, but not EX shift, under OT condition. Results accord with previously reported overtraining effects with rats and have implications for comparative theories of mediated behavior.