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Individual Differences in Learning and Perseveration

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Date Issued:
1969
Summary:
Two groups of rats received training and testing in learning situations designed to induce perseveration. One task involved discrimination training on one bar of a two-bar Skinner box and a subsequent shift of reinforcement to the opposite bar. The second task was a maze-learning one in which the training route was blocked after 40 trials at a point just before the entrance to the goal box. Thereafter, access to the goal box was possible only through a shorter, but not previously reinforced route. The third task involved escape training through one door of a four-door shock compartment. After 40 trials, the training door was locked and S was permitted to escape shock only through one of the three previously-locked doors. In each of the three tasks, indices of initial learning and perseveration were selected, and within-subject comparisons were made for both initial learning and perseveration across tasks. Within each task there was a comparison of the initial learning measures to those used to define perseveration. Finally, one of the groups was given conditioning and extinction sessions in a single-bar Skinner box. The extinction measure was compared with perseveration measures in the other tasks. Four hypotheses were stated. These were that between tasks perseverative measures would be positively related; that between tasks initial learning measures would be positively related; that within each task initial learning and perseveration would be neeatively related; and finally that extinction in the single-bar Skinner box would have a positive relationship to measures of perseveration in the other tasks. Only the last two hypotheses were supported and this support was not uncontradicted. Also~ in the case of the extinction-perseveration comparisons, none of the supporting evidence reached significance at the .05 level of confidence.
Title: Individual Differences in Learning and Perseveration.
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Name(s): Preache, Maurline
Adamson, Robert E., Thesis advisor
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Date Created: 1969
Date Issued: 1969
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 57 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: Two groups of rats received training and testing in learning situations designed to induce perseveration. One task involved discrimination training on one bar of a two-bar Skinner box and a subsequent shift of reinforcement to the opposite bar. The second task was a maze-learning one in which the training route was blocked after 40 trials at a point just before the entrance to the goal box. Thereafter, access to the goal box was possible only through a shorter, but not previously reinforced route. The third task involved escape training through one door of a four-door shock compartment. After 40 trials, the training door was locked and S was permitted to escape shock only through one of the three previously-locked doors. In each of the three tasks, indices of initial learning and perseveration were selected, and within-subject comparisons were made for both initial learning and perseveration across tasks. Within each task there was a comparison of the initial learning measures to those used to define perseveration. Finally, one of the groups was given conditioning and extinction sessions in a single-bar Skinner box. The extinction measure was compared with perseveration measures in the other tasks. Four hypotheses were stated. These were that between tasks perseverative measures would be positively related; that between tasks initial learning measures would be positively related; that within each task initial learning and perseveration would be neeatively related; and finally that extinction in the single-bar Skinner box would have a positive relationship to measures of perseveration in the other tasks. Only the last two hypotheses were supported and this support was not uncontradicted. Also~ in the case of the extinction-perseveration comparisons, none of the supporting evidence reached significance at the .05 level of confidence.
Identifier: FA00000813 (IID)
Degree granted: Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1969.
Note(s): Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Subject(s): Learning, Psychology of
Perseveration (Psychology)
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Sublocation: Digital Library
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00000813
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Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.