Effects of three types of pretraining on discrimination learning in preschool children.

Abstract

Three groups, each consisting of 20 3- to 5-yr.-old children, were given identical treatment in a transfer task situation after having experienced different types of pretraining. The relevant-S group learned during pretraining to associate names with each of the two pictures of faces that subsequently served as stimuli in the transfer task. The irrelevant group was given a comparable amount of paired-associate learning, but with stimuli unrelated to the transfer task. The attention group was not given a verbal learning experience, but rather was merely exposed to the relevant stimuli during pretraining. The transfer task involved a simple discrimination learning situation, the response measured being the number of correct choices made in 30 presentations of the relevant stimuli. Analysis of the transfer task data revealed that the relevant-S group performed significantly better than did the irrelevant and attention groups. Significant treatment X trials interactions indicated that the learning curves of the relevant-S and irrelevant groups differed, as did the curves for the irrelevant and attention groups. It was concluded that the results were in agreement with the prediction that the possession of names for the stimuli in a learning task would enhance performance on that task.