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Establishing mirror-image discriminations with progressively delayed extra-stimulus prompts
P M Smeets1, G E Lancioni, S Striefel
1Department of Psychology, Leiden University, Holland.
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
|October 1, 1991
Summary
Delayed extra-stimulus prompts effectively teach preschool children to distinguish mirror-image stimuli. Gradual prompt elimination is not necessary for successful learning in orientation-based tasks.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Development
- Early Childhood Education
Background:
- Preschool children often struggle with discriminating left-right mirror-image stimuli.
- Extra-stimulus prompts can aid in learning complex visual discriminations.
- The role of prompt timing and fading in learning is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effectiveness of progressively delayed extra-stimulus prompts for teaching left-right discrimination.
- To examine the attention-guiding properties of different prompt types.
- To determine the necessity of gradually eliminating prompts during learning.
Main Methods:
- Four experiments utilized progressively delayed extra-stimulus prompts with preschool children.
- Three conditions were tested: Orientation, Location, and Shape prompts.
- Prompt elimination strategies varied across conditions.
Main Results:
- Most children rapidly learned using Orientation prompts.
- Delayed orientation prompting proved successful irrespective of prompt elimination methods.
- Delay training was ineffective in Location and Shape conditions; Orientation condition required delayed prompting for reliable learning.
Conclusions:
- Progressively delayed extra-stimulus prompts are a viable method for teaching left-right discrimination in young children.
- The effectiveness of prompts is dependent on the task condition, with Orientation tasks benefiting most from delayed prompting.
- Gradual prompt elimination is not a prerequisite for successful learning in this context.