Operant learning of visual pattern discrimination in young infants

doi:10.1016/0022-0965(71)90062-2

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Volume 11, Issue 1, February 1971, Pages 45-53

https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-0965(71)90062-2 Get rights and content

Abstract

An operant conditioning technique was used to study visual discrimination of simple patterns by infants aged 6–12 weeks. The appropriate direction of head turning to the patterns was developed and maintained by social reinforcement. The results showed that visual discriminative control of the direction of head turning can be achieved.

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Cited by (8)

Effects of ecologically relevant manipulations on infant discrimination learning
1978, Infant Behavior and Development
In our laboratory, persistent attempts to establish an operant discrimination in 4-month-old infants met with limited success, even though the procedures involved readily conditionable head-movement responses, highly discriminable audiovisual stimuli, and potent sensory reinforcers. On the assumption that discriminative learning might be facilitated by experimental arrangements which were less arbitrary and better aligned with the infant's natural endowment, modifications designed to take advantage of the young baby's presumed sensitivity to the locus of incoming stimulation were introduced. Thus, (1) a more naturalistic response-consequence relationship was achieved by placing reinforcement at the end of the heat-rotation are rather than at midline and by emphasizing the orientational rather than the manipulative character of the response, and (2) the discriminanda were presented in separate locations in the vertical plane rather than in a single midline position. As a consequence of these topographical manipulations, rapid and accurate discrimination learning was obtained. Almost all subjects (N = 32) exhibited significant levels of correct responding on random test trials, with half the sample scoring at least 80% correct in the second of two discrimination sessions. Moreover, many infants exhibited long runs of consecutively correct responses. It remains to be determined whether the results are a function of change in the form of the response, the enhanced salience of the stimuli, or the natural predisposition of infants to associate spatially differentiated cues with spatially differentiated responses. Since, under the rearranged conditions, many infants displayed behaviors characteristic of problem-solving, it is suggested that a properly constructed discrimination learning task may be useful in examining the emergence of higher-order cognitive functions.
Mother-Infant Interaction and its Study
1976, Advances in Child Development and Behavior
This chapter discusses the direction of influence in child socialization in general and in caregiver–infant interaction in particular. Theoretical and methodological approaches to caregiver–infant interaction and the directions of influence within that interaction are discussed in the context of two general theoretical perspectives for human development—the organismic and the mechanistic. These disparate models imply very different conceptualizations of behavioral development. The implications of the two models are very similar for the empirical study of the directions of effects within caregiver–infant interaction. The heuristic functions of the two theoretical perspectives would be very dissimilar. Within the organismic approach, research would focus on the (1) descriptive study of the course of development to discover the formal causes of development, which are not open to empirical determination and (2) facilitative and inhibitory effects on the course of development. Mechanistic models have been developed to order sequential relations between environmental and behavioral events. Within such an approach, research would focus on the study of the functional relations among sequences of variables, to provide the description and determinants of development.
Operant Conditioning of Infant Behavior: A Review
1974, Advances in Child Development and Behavior
This chapter covers published investigations in which infant behaviors are followed by positive reinforcement. The age range of infancy is considered to be from birth to 18 months. This is the conventional age range for infancy, but the primary advantage of this limit is that the lower age range for children in other reviews of operant conditioning begins at about this age. Experimental spaces used in these investigations have been reviewed and different aspects of experimental sessions are discussed as well. The essential design characteristics of each experiment are outlined. The infant behaviors that have received experimental attention are discussed. Among the behaviors which have been studied are sucking, head turning, visual attending, vocalization, smiling, kicking, and touching or grasping objects. To aid presentation, behaviors have been classified into three categories: neonatal behaviors, social behaviors, and behaviors involving the hands, arms, or legs. Age classification is incorporated such that within the discussion of each behavior, the general order is according to the age of subjects.
The impact of B. F. Skinner’s science of operant learning on early childhood research, theory, treatment, and care
2021, Early Child Development and Care
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2013, The Infant and Family in the Twenty-First Century
Effect of reinforcement on infants’ performance in a preferential looking acuity task
1988, Optometry and Vision Science

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Operant learning of visual pattern discrimination in young infants

Abstract

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Stimulus variables determining space perception in infants

Science

Slant perception and shape constancy in infants

Science

The visual world of infants

Scientific American

Extinction of the smiling response in infants as a function of reinforcement schedule

Child Development

Pattern vision in newborn infants

Science

Visual perception and experience in early infancy: a look at the hidden side of behavior development