The effects of recency and varied amounts of auditory habituation on the novel stimulus selection behavior of lower and middle class kindergarten children
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Paul Jerry Vicinanza (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
- Advisor
- Richard H. Klemer
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of varied amounts of delay and auditory habituation on the novel stimulus selection behavior of lower and middle class kindergarten children. Three levels of auditory habituation and three amounts of delay between habituation and testing were employed as independent variables. Subjects were lower-class or middle-class kindergarten children who were habituated to either 1, 3 or 5 minutes of auditory stimuli and were tested either immediately after the preliminary (habituation) session or 3 or 6 days after habituation. Seventy-two middle-class children were randomly selected from two church-related kindergartens in Greensboro, North Carolina. Seventy-two lower-class children were also randomly selected from Greensboro Head Start centers. Eight middle-class and eight lower-class subjects, with an equal number of boys and girls in each class sampling, were randomly assigned to each of the nine experimental conditions. Subjects were habituated to auditory stimuli for the amount of time designated by their sample placement and were tested for a 90 second interval after their assigned delay period. During the 90 second testing sessions subjects were allowed to press two rubber bulbs - one causing the presentation of the familiar auditory stimuli and the second causing the presentation of novel visual stimuli. Subjects' responses for both stimuli were recorded. A visual preference (VP) score was tabulated for each subject by dividing the number of visual responses by the total number of responses. The VP score was used as the dependent variable. A 2 x 3 x 3 factorial analysis of variance, with trend analysis was used to analyze data. Five major conclusions from statistically significant results were drawn from the experiment: (a) Increases in the amount of auditory habituation cause linearly related increases in preference for visual stimuli; (b) the longer the delay between habituation and testing, the less Ss prefer visual stimuli; (c) the effect of the interaction of habituation and delay is greatest under conditions of longer habituation and shorter delay, with no specifically related function, Ss' mean VP scores increased as habituation increased and delay decreased; (d) social class of subjects differentially interacts with the amount of delay between habituation and testing and can best be expressed as a linear function; (e) social class of Ss differentially interacts with the effect of habituation and can best be expressed in the form of a modified inverted U.
The effects of recency and varied amounts of auditory habituation on the novel stimulus selection behavior of lower and middle class kindergarten children
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Dissertation
- Language: English
- Date: 1969
- Keywords
- habituation in children, behavior in children
- Subjects
- Auditory perception in children
- Habituation (Neuropsychology)