Exemplar training and a derived transformation of function in accordance with symmetry: II

The main purpose of the present study was to determine whether exemplar tra ining in symmetry relations would readily facilitate the transformation of function in accordance with symmetry, when subjects were not provided with explicit name training. The study also examined whether pretraining that wa s formally similar to the symmetry test, but did not reinforce symmetry rel ations, would have the same facilitative effect as exemplar training. Sixte en children, aged between 4 and 5 years, were employed across three experim ents (i.e., 4 children each in Experiments 1 and 2, and 8 children in Exper iment 3). In Experiment 1, subjects were trained in an action-object condit ional discrimination using familiar actions and objects (e.g., when the exp erimenter waved, choosing a toy car was reinforced, and when the experiment er clapped, choosing a doll was reinforced). Subjects were then exposed to a test for derived object-action symmetry relations (e.g., experimenter pre sents toy car-child waves and experimenter presents doll-child claps). Acro ss subsequent sessions, a, multiple-baseline design was used to introduce e xemplar training (i.e., explicit symmetry training) for those subjects who failed the symmetry test. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1, except that the trained and tested relations were reversed (i.e., train object-action, test action-object relations). Experiment 3 replicated Experiment 1, excep t that subjects were exposed to object-action pretraining. Across Experimen ts 1 and 2, none of the 8 subjects show derived object-action (Experiment 1 ) or action-object (Experiment 2) symmetry until they received explicit sym metry training. Pretraining object-action responding in Experiment 3 appear ed to facilitate symmetry, but only for 4 of the 8 subjects. For the 4 subj ects who failed, symmetry emerged following exposure to exemplar training. Overall, the data are consistent with Relational Frame Theory.