Abstract
The main purpose of the present study was to determine whether exemplar training would readily facilitate the transformation of function in accordance with symmetry. Sixteen children, aged between 4 and 5 years, were employed across four experiments (i.e., 4 children each in Experiments 1 to 4). In Experiment 1, subjects were first trained to name two actions and two objects by demonstrating listening, echoic, and tacting behaviors (e.g., hear name → point to object, hear name → say name, see object → say name, respectively). This name training served to establish that each of the subjects could clearly discriminate the experimental stimuli. Subjects were then trained in an action-object conditional discrimination using the previously named actions and objects (e.g., when the experimenter waved, choosing a toy car was reinforced, and when the experimenter clapped, choosing a doll was reinforced). Subjects were then reexposed to the name training, before exposure to a test for derived object-action symmetry relations (e.g., experimenter presents toy car → child. waves and experimenter presents doll → child claps). Across subsequent sessions, a multiple-baseline design was used to introduce exemplar training (i.e., explicit symmetry training) for those subjects who failed the symmetry test. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1, except that the name retraining (between the conditional discrimination training and symmetry test) was removed. Experiment 3 replicated Experiment 1, except that subjects were trained to tact all of the actions and objects during conditional discrimination training and symmetry testing. Experiment 4 replicated Experiment 1, except that the trained and tested relations were reversed (i.e., train object-action, test action-object relations). Across the four experiments, 13 out of 16 subjects failed to show derived objectaction (Experiments 1-3) or action-object (Experiment 4) symmetry until they received explicit symmetry training. Overall, the data are consistent with Relational Frame Theory.
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This work was conducted as part of a Ph.D. research program undertaken by Yvonne Barnes-Holmes, funded by the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. We thank Bill Mcllvane and one anonymous reviewer for their helpful and constructive comments on an earlier version of the current article.
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Barnes-Holmes, Y., Barnes-Holmes, D., Roche, B. et al. Exemplar Training and a Derived Transformation of Function in Accordance with Symmetry. Psychol Rec 51, 287–308 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03395400
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03395400