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

The main purpose of the present study was to determine whether exemplar training would readily facilitate the transformation of function in accordance with symmetry. Sixteen children, aged between 4 and 5 years, were employed across four experiments (i.e., 4 children each in Experiments 1 to 4). In Experiment 1, subjects were first trained to name two actions and two objects by demonstrating listening, echoic, and tacting behaviors (e.g., hear name --> point to object, hear name --> say name, see object --> say name, respectively). This name training served to establish that each of the subjects could clearly discriminate the experimental stimuli. Subjects were then trained in an action-object conditional discrimination using the previously named actions and objects (e.g., when the experimenter waved, choosing a toy car was reinforced, and when the experimenter clapped, choosing a doll was reinforced). Subjects were then reexposed to the name training, before exposure to a test for derived object-action symmetry relations (e.g., experimenter presents toy car --> child waves and experimenter presents doll --> child claps). Across subsequent sessions, a multiple-baseline design was used to introduce exemplar training (i.e., explicit symmetry training) for those subjects who failed the symmetry test. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1, except that the name retraining (between the conditional discrimination training and symmetry test) was removed. Experiment 3 replicated Experiment 1, except that subjects were trained to tact all of the actions and objects during conditional discrimination training and symmetry testing. Experiment 4 replicated Experiment 1, except that the trained and tested relations were reversed (i.e., train object-action, test action-object relations). Across the four experiments, 13 out of 16 subjects failed to show derived object-action (Experiments 1-3) or action-object (Experiment 4) symmetry until they received explicit symmetry training. Overall, the data are consistent with Relational frame Theory.