TY - JOUR
T1 - Children's Emergent Relations of Equivalence using Stimuli with Opposite Verbal Labels
T2 - Exclusion and Minimal Training Conditions
AU - Schenk, Jacqueline
AU - Keenan, Mickey
AU - Boelens, Harrie
AU - Dymond, Simon
AU - Smeets, Paul
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank all the children who participated in this study.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/2/2
Y1 - 2021/2/2
N2 - The present study examined different conditions under which exclusion responding in conditional discrimination tasks would generate emergent equivalence relations in young children based on shared relationships with verbal labels. Both visual stimuli (Sets A, B, C, and D) and auditory stimuli (spoken words, Set N: N1 "correct"; N2: "incorrect") were used. Following a pilot study, three experiments were conducted, each involving eight preschool children. These experiments systematically investigated under which conditions responding by exclusion (i.e., responding away from a designated S- comparison in a matching to sample context) would generate sufficiently stable sample-S relations for arbitrary stimulus classes to establish. The results showed that young children's exclusion responding under test conditions will only contribute to arbitrary stimulus class formation and expansion when training has already established two arbitrary stimulus classes involving at least two stimuli each. For young children to demonstrate emergent conditional discrimination performances that are indicative of the formation of equivalence relations, it is necessary to have training and/or reinforced exposure to both S and S- control elements required for deriving the appropriate emergent relations with at least two conditional relations involving different samples. These findings not only contribute to existing research and theory on the conditions under which exclusion responding may contribute to fundamental language and learning processes, they also contribute to the experimental predictability of emergent conditional matching behaviours in preschool children by further unravelling the conditions under which emergent matching based on exclusion generates arbitrary conditional relations of equivalence. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier B.V.]
AB - The present study examined different conditions under which exclusion responding in conditional discrimination tasks would generate emergent equivalence relations in young children based on shared relationships with verbal labels. Both visual stimuli (Sets A, B, C, and D) and auditory stimuli (spoken words, Set N: N1 "correct"; N2: "incorrect") were used. Following a pilot study, three experiments were conducted, each involving eight preschool children. These experiments systematically investigated under which conditions responding by exclusion (i.e., responding away from a designated S- comparison in a matching to sample context) would generate sufficiently stable sample-S relations for arbitrary stimulus classes to establish. The results showed that young children's exclusion responding under test conditions will only contribute to arbitrary stimulus class formation and expansion when training has already established two arbitrary stimulus classes involving at least two stimuli each. For young children to demonstrate emergent conditional discrimination performances that are indicative of the formation of equivalence relations, it is necessary to have training and/or reinforced exposure to both S and S- control elements required for deriving the appropriate emergent relations with at least two conditional relations involving different samples. These findings not only contribute to existing research and theory on the conditions under which exclusion responding may contribute to fundamental language and learning processes, they also contribute to the experimental predictability of emergent conditional matching behaviours in preschool children by further unravelling the conditions under which emergent matching based on exclusion generates arbitrary conditional relations of equivalence. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier B.V.]
KW - Matching-to-sample
KW - responding by exclusion
KW - stimulus equivalence
KW - emergent relations
KW - children
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85100997115&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.beproc.2021.104341
DO - 10.1016/j.beproc.2021.104341
M3 - Article
C2 - 33545321
VL - 185
SP - 104341
JO - Behavioural Processes
JF - Behavioural Processes
SN - 0376-6357
M1 - 104341
ER -