A MULTIPLE-CHOICE VISUAL DISCRIMINATION APPARATUS.
A 1964 mechanical box offers a plug-and-play plan for running error-free, four-choice visual discrimination trials with preschoolers.
01Research in Context
What this study did
HIVELY (1964) built a tabletop machine for preschoolers.
Kids pressed one of four lit windows when a picture appeared.
The box timed every trial and recorded hits or misses on punch cards.
What they found
The paper only shows the hardware.
No kids were tested, so no learning data are given.
The goal was to give future researchers a ready-made teaching tool.
How this fits with other research
POLIDORNEVIN et al. (1963) built a similar punch-card rig for monkeys one year earlier.
HIVELY (1964) simply moved the same idea to young children, proving the tech could scale down to humans.
Mansell et al. (2002) later added a 5-second delay before the correct picture.
That small tweak boosted accuracy for kids with severe ID, showing the old machine could be upgraded with modern timing rules.
Why it matters
You can copy the spirit of the 1964 box with today’s tablets.
Set up four-choice visual tasks, let the software log responses, and add a brief delay before the S+ appears.
This mix of automation and timing keeps error data clean while you focus on teaching.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This apparatus was designed to program _ stimuli to teach complex visual discrimination 9Q tasks (Hively, 1962; Hively, 1964). It has been extensively used with pre-school and kinder- k garten children, and could be adapted for use with other primates.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 1964 · doi:10.1901/jeab.1964.7-387