The effect of dimensional preference on discrimination shifts

The effect of dimensional preference (for either color or form) on reversal and nonreversal shifts was investigated at five developmental levels: preschool, kindergarten, second and fourth grades of elementary school, and junior high school. During the original learning of the reversal and nonreversal tasks, one-half of Ss were trained with their preferred dimension as relevant, while the other half were trained with their preferred dimension as irrelevant. The results indicated that (a) as a trend, the effect of dimensional preference in original learning lessens as a function of age, (b) reversal shift is easier than nonreversal shift throughout all ages, (c) reversal shift on their preferred dimension is easier than reversal shift on their nonpreferred dimension. These results were compared with the present author's findings in the previous experiments on the ID-ED paradigm.