A COMPARISON OF HIGH AND LOW INTELLIGENCE OF PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN IN REVERSAL AND NONREVERSAL SHIFT CONDITIONS

In the studies of the higher mental processes, the role of covert responses has been emphasized. They are assumed to mediate between the external stimulus and the overt response. One technique for studying covert mediating responses involves comparison of the transfer resulting from reversal and nonreversal shifts. The present experimental task involved learning to classify stimuli differing on three dimensions. Only one dimension was relevant, i.e., rewarded. After the criterion was reached, a second classification task was presented. For the reversal shift S, the same dimension on which he had been originally trained remained relevant but the reward patterns were reversed. For the nonreversal shift S, a new dimension that was not presented previously became relevant.