Conceptual Level Sorting in Young Children: Grouping on the Basis of Class Membership in the Presence of Stimulus Competition

Abstract

The present study was concerned with whether young children could be trained to sort on the basis of class membership in the presence of stimulus competition. 60 children (mean age 5.2) were assigned to one of three training conditions. Those training conditions without stimulus competition produced a high number of class responders. When switched to a transfer task characterized by stimulus competition, Ss continued to respond on the basis of class membership at a high level. The stimulus competition training yielded significantly fewer class responders in training. When switched to a stimulus competition transfer task, class responding was significantly less than that found in training conditions without stimulus competition. The Zeaman and House position (1963) that dimensional responses transfer across problems is supported, while Birch and Bortner's stimulus competition hypothesis (1966) seems correct only in specified instances.