CONDITIONAL DISCRIMINATION IN MENTALLY-RETARDED SUBJECTS - PROGRAMMING ACQUISITION AND LEARNING SET

In Experiment 1, 3 subjects with retardation were exposed to two visua l-visual arbitrary matching-to-sample problems each day. One condition al discrimination was presented under trial-and-error conditions, and the other was presented under a component training procedure. The latt er began by establishing the comparison discrimination and its rapid r eversal. The successive discrimination between the sample stimuli was established through differential naming. Then, sample naming was maint ained in conditional discrimination sessions in which the same sample was presented in blocks of consecutive trials. Block size was decrease d across sessions until sample presentation was randomized as in trial -and-error training (but with naming maintained). Two subjects initial ly learned only with component training. The performance of the 3rd su bject was inconsistent across conditional discriminations. One of the successful subjects ultimately learned rapidly and consistently with t rial-and-error procedures. Experiment 2 sought to demonstrate learning set in the other 2 subjects. Elements of the component training proce dure were withdrawn oyer successive conditional discriminations. Ultim ately, 1 subject nearly always learned under trial-and-error condition s, and the other learned under trial-and-error conditions combined wit h differential sample naming.