Stimulus overselectivity in a match-to-sample paradigm by severely retarded youth

Stimulus Overselectivity Four Decades Later: A Review of the Literature and Its Implications for Current Research in Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…Overselectivity has also been reported in typical preschoolers (Bickel et al 1984) and older children (Eimas 1969;Koegel and Wilhelm 1973), in learning disabled children (Bailey 1981), in hearing-impaired children (Fairbank et al 1986), in mentally retarded children (Brack 2001;Huguenin 1997) and mentally retarded youth without autism (Dickson et al 2006;Dube and McIlvane 1997;Huguenin 1997;Schneider and Salzberg 1982), and in adults with autism (Matthews et al 2001;Remington et al 2009). Clearly, stimulus overselectivity is not unique to autism (Dube et al 2003;McHugh and Reed 2007;Miyashita 1981), but it is a phenomenon common in autism as a slew of mostly older studies reveals (Anderson and Rincover 1982;Bickel et al 1984;Boser et al 2002;Chiang and Carter 2008;Dunlap et al 1979;Edwards et al 1976;Falcomata et al 2007;Frankel et al 1984;Gersten 1983;Glenn et al 1980;Hedbring and Newsom 1985;Katoh and Kobayashi 1985;Koegel and Wilhelm 1973;Koegel and Rincover 1976;Koegel and Schreibman 1977;Koegel et al 1979;Kolko et al 1980;Kovattana and Kraemer 1974;Matthews et al 2001;Myles et al 1989;Ploog and Kim 2007;…”

“…The contextual cues of recess or lesson are the so-called conditional stimuli or sample stimuli, whereas the toy-versus-lesson materials are the so-called comparison stimuli. In these tasks, sometimes called symbolic matching-to-sample (Dube and McIlvane 1999;Schneider and Salzberg 1982), a response is only reinforced if the child pays attention to two cues simultaneously (e.g., the recess cues and the toy, or, the lesson cues and the workbook). Even though children with autism notoriously fail on these tasks exactly because of their inability to attend to multiple cues, it has been shown that with extended training on conditional discrimination tasks, stimulus overselectivity can be reduced .…”

A reevaluation of stimulus overselectivity: Restricted stimulus control or stimulus control hierarchies

“…This type of responding has been previously noted with autistic children who also exhibited overselectivity (e.g., Cook & Rincover, 1978). Further, Schneider and Salzberg (1982) recently demonstrated that overselectivity may not be restrictive so as to preclude learning of other stimuli but instead is a type of responding that occurs only in specific environmental contexts. Perhaps understanding how this type of conditional control develops will be important for understanding overselectivity and its determinants.…”

Extinction of Over-selected Stimuli Causes Emergence of Under-selected Cues in Higher-functioning Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders

“…It is a widely acknowledged problem in individuals with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (e.g., Allen and Fuqua 1985;Dube and McIlvane 1997;Dube and McIlvane 1999;Huguenin1997;Litrownik et al 1978;Meisel 1981;Schneider and Salzberg 1982;Stromer et al 1993;Wilhelm and Lovaas 1976). The phenomenon is also observed in a many other populations, including individuals with general learning disabilities (Dickson et al 2006), acquired neurological damage (Wayland and Taplin 1985), and the elderly (McHugh and Reed 2007).…”