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EQUIVALENCE CLASS ESTABLISHMENT, EXPANSION, AND MODIFICATION IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN
Author(s) -
Saunders Richard R.,
Drake Kathleen M.,
Spradlin Joseph E.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of the experimental analysis of behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1938-3711
pISSN - 0022-5002
DOI - 10.1901/jeab.1999.71-195
Subject(s) - psychology , discriminative model , equivalence class (music) , equivalence (formal languages) , stimulus control , reinforcement , functional equivalence , developmental psychology , discrimination learning , cognitive psychology , audiology , social psychology , mathematics , artificial intelligence , computer science , medicine , linguistics , philosophy , discrete mathematics , neuroscience , nicotine
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.