Pilgrim, C., Jackson, J., & Galizio, M. (2000).
Acquisition of arbitrary conditional discriminations by young normally developing children.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior,
73, 177-193.
Three experiments investigated conditions designed to facilitate
acquisition of arbitrary conditional discriminations in 3- to
6-year-old normally developing children. In Experiment 1, 6
subjects failed to master the arbitrary match-to-sample task
under conditions of differential reinforcement alone, but 7
subjects did so when instructions or instructions and sample
naming were added. In Experiment 2, sample naming introduced in a
blocked-trial arrangement resulted in acquisition, but only when
the sample name was a nonsense syllable provided by the
experimenter (5 of 7 subjects) and not when the sample name was
generated by the subject (0 of 5 subjects). Experiment 3
demonstrated the effectiveness of a training sequence involving
thematically related stimuli as an intermediate step facilitating
the transition from identity to novel arbitrary relations. The
difficulties in mastering arbitrary conditional discriminations
shown here imply that further analyses with young children will
be particularly important in efforts to investigate the
development of theoretically important stimulus relations.
Key words: arbitrary conditional discrimination, match to sample,
instructions, sample naming, object displacement, mouse click,
children