TRANSFER OF SOCIAL ATTRIBUTIONS IN STIMULUS EQUIVALENCE CLASSES BY PRESCHOOL-CHILDREN

The transfer of social attributions within stimulus-equivalence classe s comprised of photographs of children was examined. Five children (me an age: 4 yr., 2 mo.) were taught conditional discriminations sufficie nt for the emergence of two 3-member equivalence classes (A1-B1-C1 and A2-B2-C2). Social attributions were established by using two photogra phs to identify fictional children who could facilitate (B1) or preven t (B2) the participant's reinforcement on a computer game. Transfer of attribution Ir as assessed by asking the participants questions regar ding predicted social behaviors by children in all six photographs. On e set of questions pertained explicitly to the response-options of the computer game; a second set referred to other prosocial and antisocia l behaviors. Three children chose photographs in response to questions consistent with their experience with members B1 and B2 of the shared equivalence class when the questions pertained to die computer game. One subject also selected photographs in response to questions about p redicted prosocial and antisocial behavior which reflected her experie nce with the B1 and B2 photographs.