THE INFLUENCE OF CONCEPT TRAINING ON LETTER DISCRIMINATION.

72 kindergarten children, randomly assigned to 1 of 3 warm-up groups -- (1) orientation relevant, (2) orientation irrelevant, and (3) control -- were required to discriminate among the letters b, d, p, and q on a task similar to Davidson's (1935) Letter Perception Test. While Ss in group 2 made significantly more confusion errors than those in group 3, Ss in group 1 made significantly fewer errors than those in group 3. The results are interpreted in terms of the adequacy of analysis of the discrimination task, that so the appropriateness of the S's concept of same and different, rather than perceptual ability and/or attentional factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]