The Effect of Instruction and Degree of Training on Shifts of Discriminative Responses

Abstract

Three groups of 27 human Ss were given different amounts of training on a size-discrimination task and then required, without warning, to master a position-discrimination task. Another group, following minimal training, was warned that the problem would change. Results indicate that degree of training on the first was positively related to mastery of the second problem, that perseveration errors were unrelated to degree of original training, and that the warning facilitated the shift to and solution of the second problem.