Prompting versus Confirmation in the Discrimination and Identification of Two Auditory Dimensions

Abstract

Two training procedures were compared for their efficiency in improving the identification and discrimination of acoustic stimuli. One procedure (prompting) involved presentation of the correct answer before the presentation of the stimulus or stimuli. The other procedure (confirmation) involved presentation of the correct answer after the stimulus or stimuli had been judged. Results of the first experiment indicated that confirmation was significantly superior to prompting in training pitch discrimination. Experiment 2 results revealed no difference between the procedures in improving either 2 -alternative pitch or loudness identification. In neither experiment did the difficulty of the perceptual task interact with the training procedures. It is suggested that the nature of the perceptual judgment required and degree of response uncertainty are both variables influencing the outcomes of comparisons of prompting and confirmation in perceptual learning.