Reply to Saunders and to Hayes

McIntire, Kenneth D.; Cleary, James; Thompson, Travis

doi:10.1901/jeab.1989.51-393

Cited by 14 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 3 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…In fact, none of the subjects mastered the arbitrary task under conditions of differential reinforcement alone, and 3 subjects showed no sign of acquisition even after performances had been explicitly instructed, until sample names were trained. Differential responding to sample stimuli has been shown to facilitate the acquisition of conditional discriminations in many studies, involving humans (e.g., Horne & Lowe, 1996;Saunders & Spradlin, 1990 and nonhumans (e.g., McIntire, Cleary, & Thompson, 1989;Urcuioli, 1996;Zentall, 1996). Experiment 2 was designed to examine the influence of sample naming independent of the instructions used in Experiment 1.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, in previous studies with sample naming, the experimenter provided arbitrary names for the subjects to use (e.g., Saunders & Spradlin, 1990, whereas in Experiment 1 the subjects generated their own names. Recent theoretical debate over the role of untrained naming (e.g., Horne & Lowe, 1996;McIntire et al, 1989) suggests that a direct comparison of self-generated and experimenter-given names could be of interest. This issue was also explored in Experiment 2.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Acquisition of Arbitrary Conditional Discriminations by Young Normally Developing Children

Pilgrim

Jackson

Galizio

2000

J Exper Analysis Behavior

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Three experiments investigated conditions designed to facilitate acquisition of arbitrary conditional discriminations in 3- to 6-year-old normally developing children. In Experiment 1, 6 subjects failed to master the arbitrary match-to-sample task under conditions of differential reinforcement alone, but 7 subjects did so when instructions or instructions and sample naming were added. In Experiment 2, sample naming introduced in a blocked-trial arrangement resulted in acquisition, but only when the sample name was a nonsense syllable provided by the experimenter (5 of 7 subjects) and not when the sample name was generated by the subject (0 of 5 subjects). Experiment 3 demonstrated the effectiveness of a training sequence involving thematically related stimuli as an intermediate step facilitating the transition from identity to novel arbitrary relations. The difficulties in mastering arbitrary conditional discriminations shown here imply that further analyses with young children will be particularly important in efforts to investigate the development of theoretically important stimulus relations.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acquisition of Arbitrary Conditional Discriminations by Young Normally Developing Children

Pilgrim

Jackson

Galizio

2000

J Exper Analysis Behavior

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Both Hayes (1989) and Saunders (1989) criticized the claim of Mcintire et al (1987) that they had demonstrated equivalence in their monkeys, because all components of all tested relations were directly trained and, hence, no relations were derived. As suggested by Mcintire et al (1987Mcintire et al ( , 1989, heterogeneous verbal sequences may constitute another, equally plausible , mechanism for the apparent emergence of complex relations . If the establishment of stimulus equivalence were interpretable solely in terms of well-established operant principles, the equivalence could be based on bi-directional behavior chains, not necessarily verbal or overt.…”

mentioning

confidence: 94%

Probability of Equivalence Formation: Familiar Stimuli and Training Sequence

Arntzen

2004

Psychol Rec

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The present study was conducted to show how responding in accord with equivalence relations changes as a function of position of familiar stimuli, pictures, and with the use of nonsense syllables in an MTO-training structure. Fifty college students were tested for responding in accord with equivalence in an AB, CB, DB, and EB training structure. The results showed that familiar stimuli presented as A-stimuli gave the highest yields (10 of 10 participants), whereas introducing the pictures at the end of the training (as E-stimuli) gave lower yields (5 of 10), and using nonsense syllables gave even lower yields (4 of 10). In addition, when all stimuli were Greek/Arabic letters only, 3 of 10 participants responded in accord with equivalence. When familiar stimuli were A-stimuli, but with a requirement of using keys on the keyboard, only 4 of 10 subjects responded in accord with equivalence. Furthermore, there was a high correlation between responding in accord with equivalence and reports of class consistent naming. Reaction time data also showed a typical pattern, in which there was an increase from training to test and a decrease during testing.

show abstract

“…Sidman's stimulus equivalence paradigm has provided useful methods for analyzing and teaching complex behavior; it has also stimulated considerable theoretical debate (e.g., Hayes, 1989;McIntire, Cleary, & Thompson, 1989; K. Saunders, 1989;Vaughan, 1989 three relational properties borrowed from mathematics, the relation among the stimuli is equivalence. The property of reflexivity is inferred when each stimulus is shown to be related conditionally to itself without explicit training.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of Conditional and Equivalence Relations Without Differential Consequences

Harrison

Green

1990

J Exper Analysis Behavior

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Two experiments were conducted to establish conditional stimulus relations without differential consequences and to test for the emergence of other relations. In Experiment 1, 3 adults responded to match-to-sample displays in which sample-comparison pairs were constant while the second comparison presented with each pair changed periodically across trials. No differential consequences followed any comparison selections. All subjects learned conditional relations between constant samples and comparisons, but results of tests for transitivity in those relations were equivocal. In Experiment 2, 4 children were given unreinforced training and testing similar to that provided to the adults in Experiment 1, with procedural refinements. One child learned conditional relations and demonstrated emergent relations that confirmed the development of two four-member equivalence classes. Another child learned the conditional relations but did not demonstrate any emergent relations reliably. A 3rd child, after reinforced training on two conditional relations, learned four new conditional relations without differential consequences and demonstrated symmetry but not equivalence in the trained relations. The 4th child did not learn the conditional relations. These findings emphasize the importance of careful construction of tests for stimulus equivalence and suggest a need for critical analyses of the apparent emergence of untrained stimulus relations on unreinforced tests that has been observed in several stimulus equivalence studies.

show abstract

Reply to Saunders and to Hayes

Cited by 14 publications

References 3 publications

Acquisition of Arbitrary Conditional Discriminations by Young Normally Developing Children

Acquisition of Arbitrary Conditional Discriminations by Young Normally Developing Children

Probability of Equivalence Formation: Familiar Stimuli and Training Sequence

Development of Conditional and Equivalence Relations Without Differential Consequences

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About