BLANK COMPARISON ANALYSIS OF EMERGENT SYMBOLIC MAPPING BY YOUNG-CHILDREN

Eight typically developing children first learned to select pictures i n response to dictated words in a three-choice matching-to-sample form at. Next, the matching-to-sample baseline was transformed via a stimul us control shaping procedure: Matching trials displayed two pictures a nd a third stimulus (termed a ''blank'' comparison). The blank was to be selected if the dictated sample did not match either of the display ed pictures. The blank comparison baseline was then used to evaluate t he children's response to matching displays that presented novel sampl e and comparison stimuli. The blank comparison method permitted the ch ildren to indicate whether the novel sample-comparison pair were relat ed (by selecting the picture) or not related (by selecting the blank). The method was used to evaluate emergent symbolic mapping and learnin g of new word:picture matching relations by the children. This study i llustrates new, potentially more informative methods for analyzing sym bol mapping in young children. The methods were shown to have consider able promise for advancing theoretical analyses of emergent mapping in both behavior analytic and developmental language research. (C) 1997 Academic Press.