EFFECT OF PRETEST EXPERIENCE ON CONCEPT ATTAINMENT IN LOWER-CLASS AND MIDDLE-CLASS CHILDREN

Investigated the hypothesis that the inclusion of an illustrative problem (pretraining) would be more beneficial to lower- than middle-class children working on a concept-attainment task using 192 8-yr-old Ss. Pretrained Ss made fewer errors than the controls and middle-class Ss made fewer errors than lower-class Ss. Data did not reveal the predicted interaction of social class and pretest experience. Speculations are offered as to the nature of social class differences in performance, and a theory as to the effect of different kinds of instructional cues is advanced. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.