The relationship between response speed and stereotyped behavior in children

Date

1986-08

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Texas Tech University

Abstract

The relationship between response latency and stereotyped behavior in young children was investigated using a concept identification task. Thirty-eight reflective and impulsive students selected on the basis of scores on the Matching Familiar Figures Test were obtained from kindergarten and second-grade elementary school students. Subjects were administered five discrimination learning problems using blank-trial probes. Kindergarten subjects showed significantly more position stereotypes than did second-grade subjects. Response latencies on experimental tasks were significantly shorter for second-grade subjects than for kindergarten subjects. Reflective subjects did not significantly differ from impulsive subjects in the use of stereotypes. A significant correlation was obtained between increased latency to responding and stereotyped patterns of responding. The results were interpreted as not supporting the concept of reflection-impulsivity or models of discrimination learning based on Piagetian theory. The critical role of pretraining procedures in investigations of hypothesis behavior in children was discussed.

Description

Keywords

Stereotype (Psychology), Child psychology, Decision making in children, Learning, Cognition in children, Psychology of

Citation