In three experiments, 2- to 4-year-old children, following pretraining with everyday objects, were presented with arbitrary stimuli of differing shapes. In Experiment 1A, 9 subjects were trained one common tact response, "zag," to three of these and a second tact, "vek," to another three. In category match-to-sample Test 1, 4 subjects sorted accurately when required only to look at the sample before selecting from five comparisons. The remaining 5 subjects succeeded in Test 2, in which they were required to tact the sample before selecting comparisons. Experiment 1B showed, for 2 of these subjects, that tact training with 12 arbitrary stimuli established two six-member classes that were still intact 6 weeks later. In Experiment 2, 3 new subjects participated in a common tact training procedure that ensured that none of the exemplars from the same class were presented together prior to the test for three-member classes. Two subjects passed category Test 1 and the third passed Test 2. Tests showed subjects' listener behavior in response to hearing /zog/ and /vek/ to be in place. These experiments indicate that common naming is effective in establishing arbitrary stimulus classes and that category match-to-sample testing provides a robust measure of categorization.

Naming and categorization in young children: Vocal tact training.

The major aim of the present study was to demonstrate that derived relational responding may be viewed as a form of generalized operant behavior. In Experiment 1, 4 subjects were divided into two conditions (2 in each condition). Using a two-comparison matching-to-sample procedure, all subjects were trained and tested for the formation of two combinatorially entailed relations. Subjects were trained and tested across multiple stimulus sets. Each set was composed of novel stimuli. Both Conditions 1 and 2 involved explicit performance-contingent feedback presented at the end of each block of test trials (i.e., delayed feedback). In Condition 1, feedback was accurate (consistent with the experimenter-designated relations) following exposure to the initial stimulus sets. When subjects' responding reached a predefined mastery criterion, the feedback then switched to inaccurate (not consistent with the experimenter-designated relations) until responding once again reached a predefined criterion. Condition 2 was similar to Condition 1, except that exposure to the initial stimulus sets was followed by inaccurate feedback and once the criterion was reached feedback switched to accurate. Once relational responding emerged and stabilized, response patterns on novel stimulus sets were controlled by the feedback delivered for previous stimulus sets. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1, except that during Conditions 3 and 4 four comparison stimuli were employed during training and testing. Experiment 3 was similar to Condition 1 of Experiment 1, except that after the mastery criterion was reached for class-consistent responding, feedback alternated from accurate to inaccurate across each successive stimulus set. Experiment 4 involved two types of feedback, one type following tests for mutual entailment and the other type following tests for combinatorial entailment. Results from this experiment demonstrated that mutual and combinatorial entailment may be controlled independently by accurate and inaccurate feedback. Overall, the data support the suggestion, made by relational frame theory, that derived relational responding is a form of generalized operant behavior.

Derived relational responding as generalized operant behavior

Preschool children were taught four two-choice match-to-sample conditional discriminations with 10 arbitrary visual stimuli. For 6 participants, 2 of the 10 stimuli served as the sample, or conditional, stimuli in all discriminations. For 5 additional participants, the same pair of stimuli served as the discriminative, or comparison, stimuli in all discriminations. Equivalence classes were established with more participants in the latter group, replicating prior research with participants with retardation. Four participants, in whom equivalence classes were established and who were available for further participation, were exposed to new conditional discriminations without trial-by-trial feedback and involving some novel and some familiar stimuli. Consistent conditional responding was observed, and tests for inclusion of the novel stimuli in the original classes showed class expansion. Training to reverse the unreinforced conditional performances produced a reversal of class membership in 3 of 4 participants, an outcome not consistent with other studies. The results are discussed with respect to the interaction of class structure and size.

Equivalence class establishment, expansion, and modification in preschool children.

The current study constitutes the first attempt to generate repertoires of relational responding, as generalized operant behaviors, when they are found to be absent in young children, using interventions suggested by Relational Frame Theory. Three children, aged between 4 and 6 years, were exposed to a basic problem-solving task that involved two or three identically-sized paper coins in an attempt to test and train patterns of relational responding in accordance with more-than and less-than. On each trial, the experimenter described how the coins compared to one another in terms of their value, and the child was then asked to pick the coin that would "buy as many sweets as possible". All three participants failed to pass baseline tests for specific patterns of arbitrary more and less responding. Interventions suggested by Relational Frame Theory, including training and testing across stimulus sets, were then successfully used to establish increasingly complex patterns of relational responding in all three children. Generalization tests demonstrated that the relational responding successfully generalized to novel stimuli and to a novel experimenter. In addition, the use of a non-contingent reinforcement condition for one participant, during which no improvement was made, together with contingency reversals for all children, indicated that the trained and tested relational responding may be considered a form of generalized operant behavior. These findings lend positive support to Relational Frame Theory's approach to derived relational responding, and to the functional analysis of human language and cognition. Alternative interpretations of the data are also considered.

https://www.ijpsy.com/volumen4/num3/99/establishing-relational-responding-in-accordance-EN.pdf

Establishing Relational Responding in Accordance with More-than and Less-than as Generalized Operant Behavior in Young Children

Publisher Summary The chapter discusses some implications of stimulus control topography (SCT) analysis for emergent behavior and stimulus classes. Equivalence outcomes result when (1) baseline training establishes the experimentally relevant SCT, and (2) this SCT occurs with a high frequency. The pattern of data that would support this analysis is a relation between the degree of experimental control over the definition and frequency of the baseline SCT and the rate and proportion of positive equivalence outcomes. This relation leads to two predictions: (1) the occurrence of delayed emergence and equivalence failures should be reduced by instituting procedures that increase the coherence between the subject's and experimenter's SCT definition, and (2) when baseline contingencies permit multiple SCTs and delayed emergence and equivalence failures do occur, then procedures that eliminate the irrelevant SCTs in the baseline or from the test trials should produce immediate increases in equivalence outcomes.

11 Some implications of a stimulus control topography analysis for emergent behavior and stimulus classes

In a systematic replication of a study using college-student subjects (Pilgrim & Galizio, 1990), 5- to 7-year-old children learned two conditional discriminations (i.e., A1B1, A2B2, A1C1, and A2C2) in a two-choice arbitrary match-to-sample task and showed the emergence of two three-member equivalence classes (A1B1C1 and A2B2C2). Baseline conditional discrimination performance were quickly controlled by reversals of the AC reinforcement contingencies (i.e., choosing Comparison Stimulus C2 was reinforced given Sample A1, and choosing C1 was reinforced given Sample A2) when the reversals were introduced in restricted baselines. On reflexivity, symmetry, and transitivity/equivalence probes following the reversal, there was some limited indication of equivalence-class reorganization (i.e., A1B1C2 and A2B2C1) in keeping with the concurrently performed baseline relations for 2 of 5 subjects, but the predominant pattern across probe trials was one of inconsistent conditional control. These findings suggest that, given similar challenges, equivalence-class performances may be more easily disrupted in young children than in adults.

Reversal of baseline relations and stimulus equivalence: II. Children.

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Reversal of baseline relations and stimulus equivalence: II. Children.