Document Type

Thesis

Date of Degree Completion

Summer 1974

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Mental Health Counseling

Committee Chair

Donald Eugene Guy

Second Committee Member

Larry M. Sparks

Third Committee Member

Alma C. Spithill

Abstract

The present study required three groups of Ss (gifted preschoolers, average preschoolers, and first graders) to solve a reversal shift (R). It was hypothesized that greater verbal competency among any of the three groups would lead to superior performance on the R shift. The results indicated that first graders performed significantly better than the average preschool children on the R shift. Also the performance of the first graders was reliably superior to the gifted children on one postshift phase analysis; on the remaining postshift comparisons a visual trend in the same direction was observed. Three separate stimulus presentation modes were also used in the present study: visual-tactile, audio-visual, and tactile. The results showed the visual-tactile condition, when compared with the other two, significantly facilitated reversal shift behavior for all Ss especially for the two preschool groups. These obtained differences in performance across stimulus modes may be accounted for by the mediational theory if one assumes that the combined visual and tactile cues facilitated the reversal shift behavior more than either of the other two modes.

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