Abstract
Researchers from behavior analytic, developmental, and comparative perspectives have all investigated the conditions under which new arbitrary (symbolic) stimulus-stimulus relations are acquired. For example, young children, people with severe mental retardation, and several species of nonhuman mammals all exhibit emergent matching (EM) in the context of a wellestablished matching-to-sample baseline: When presented with an undefined sample stimulus and a comparison array that includes one undefined comparison and one or more baseline comparisons, participants select the undefined comparison. Further, subsequent testing may show a learning outcome: Exposure to EM trials may result in a new defined relation involving the formerly undefined stimuli. Between 1974 and the late 1980s, emergent matching and learning outcomes were described independently by behavior analytic, child language, and animal cognition researchers. Cross-literature citations were virtually absent, however. More recently, crossdisciplinary citations have begun to appear. This article briefly reviews the history of EM research, emphasizing the independent development of research programs, methods, and terminology in the three disciplines. We then identify several research areas where a multidisciplinary approach may benefit all concerned.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
BENEDICT, H. (1979). Early lexical development: Comprehension and production. Journal of Child Language, 6, 183–200.
CAREY, S., & BARTLETT, E. (1978). Acquiring a single new word. Papers and Reports on Child Language Development, 15, 17–29.
CARTER, D. E., & WERNER, T. J. (1978). Complex learning and information processing by pigeons: A critical analysis. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 29, 565–601.
CHAPMAN, R. S., KAY-RAINING BIRD, E., & SCHWARTZ, S. E. (1990). Fast mapping of words in event contexts by children with Down syndrome. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 55, 761–770.
CUMMING, W. W., & BERRYMAN, R. (1965). The complex discriminated operant: Studies of matching-to-sample and related problems. In D. I. Mostofsky (Ed.), Stimulus generalization (pp. 284–330). Stanford, Ca: Stanford University Press.
DIXON, L. (1977). The nature of control by spoken words over visual stimulus selection. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 27, 433–442.
DOLLAGHAN, C. (1985). Child meets word: “Fast mapping” in preschool children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 28, 449–454.
DOLLAGHAN, C. A. (1987). Fast mapping in normal and language-impaired children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 52, 218–222.
DUNN, L. M., & DUNN, L. M. (1981). Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test–Revised. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.
GOLINKOFF, R. M., HIRSH-PASEK, K., BAILEY, L. M., & WENGER; N. R. (1992). Young children and adults use lexical principles to learn new nouns. Developmental Psychology, 28, 99–108.
GOLINKOFF, R. M., MERVIS, C. B., & HIRSH-PASEK, K. (1994). Early object labels: The case for a developmental lexical principles framework. Journal of Child Language, 21, 125–155.
HERMAN, L. M. (1980). Cognitive characteristics of dolphins. In L. M. Herman (Ed.), Cetacean behavior: Mechanisms and functions (pp. 363–429). New York: Wiley.
HERMAN, L. M., RICHARDS, D. G., & WOLZ, J. P. (1984). Comprehension of sentences by bottlenosed dolphins. Cognition, 16, 129–219.
HUNTLEY, K. R., & Ghezzi, P. M. (1993). Mutual exclusivity and exclusion: Converging evidence from two contrasting traditions. The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 11, 63–76.
KAGAN, J. (1981). The second year: The emergence of self-awareness. Cambridge, Ma: Harvard University Press.
LIPKENS, R., HAYES, S. C., & HAYES, L. J. (1993). Longitudinal study of the development of derived relations in an infant. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 56, 201–239.
MARKMAN, E. M. (1989). Categorization and naming in children. Cambridge, MA: Mit Press.
MARKMAN, E. M., & WACHTEL, G. F. (1988). Children’s use of mutual exclusivity to constrain the meanings of words. Cognitive Psychology, 20, 121–157.
MciLVANE, W. J., BASS, R. W., O’BRIEN, J. M., GEROVAC, B. J., & STODDARD, L. T. (1984). Spoken and signed naming of foods after receptive exclusion training in severe retardation. Applied Research in Mental Retardation, 5, 1–27.
MciLVANE, W. J., & DUBE, W. V. (1996). Naming as facilitator of discrimination: Reply to Horne and Lowe. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 65, 267–272.
MciLVANE, W. J., DUBE, W. V., & SERNA, R. W. (1996). Analysis of behavioral selection by consequences and its potential contributions to understanding brain-behavior relations. In K. H. Pribram & J. S. King (Eds.), Learning as selforganization (pp. 75–100). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
MciLVANE, W. J., KLEDARAS, J. B., LOWRY, M. J., & STODDARD, L. T. (1992). Studies of exclusion in individuals with severe mental retardation. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 13, 509–532.
MciLVANE, W. J., KLEDARAS, J. B., MUNSON, L. C., KING, K. A., De ROSE, J. C., & STODDARD, L. T. (1987). Controlling relations in conditional discrimination and matching by exclusion. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 48, 187–208.
MciLVANE, W. J., MUNSON, L. C., & STODDARD, L. T. (1988). Some observations on control by spoken words in children’s conditional discrimination and matching by exclusion. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 45, 472–495.
MciLVANE, W. J., & STODDARD, L. T. (1981). Acquisition of matching-to-sample performances in severe retardation: Learning by exclusion. Journal of Mental Deficiency Researdl, 25, 33–48.
MciLVANE, W. J., & STODDARD, L. T. (1985). Complex stimulus relations and exclusion in mental retardation. Analysis and Intervention in Developmental Disabilities, 5, 307–321.
MERRIMAN, W. E. (1991). The mutual exclusivity bias in children’s word learning: A reply to Woodward & Markman. Developmental Review, 11, 164–191.
MERRIMAN, W. E., & BOWMAN, L. (1989). The mutual exclusivity bias in children’s word learning. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 54.
MERRIMAN, W. E., MARAZITA, J., & JARVIS, L. H. (1993). Four-year-olds’ disambiguation of action and object word reference. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 56, 412–430.
MERVIS, C. B., & BERTRAND, J. (1993a). AcquiSition of early object labels: The roles of operating principles and input. In A. P. Kaiser & D. B. Gray (Eds.), Enhancing children’s communication: Research foundations for intervention (pp. 287–316). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.
MERVIS, C. B., & BERTRAND, J. (1993b). General and specific relations between early language and early cognitive development. Proceedings of the 26th Annual Gatlinburg Conference on Research and Theory in Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities.
NEEF, N. A., IWATA, B. A., & PAGE, T. J. (1977). The effects of known-item interspersal on acquisition and retention of spelling and sightreading words. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 10, 738.
PREMACK, D. (1976). Intelligence in ape and man. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
RICE, M. (1989). Children’S language acquisition. American Psychologist, 44, 149–156.
RICE, M. (1990). Preschooler’s Quil: Quick incidental learning of words. In G. ContiRamsden & C. E. Snow (Eds.), Children’s language (Volume 7) (pp. 171–195). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
RICE, M. L., BUHR, J. C., & NEMETH, M. (1990). Fast mapping word-learning abilities of language-delayed preschoolers. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 55, 33–42.
SCHUSTERMAN, R. J., & GISINER, R. (in press). Pinnipeds, porpoises and parsimony: Animal intelligence research viewed from a bottom-up perspective. In R. W. Mitchell, H. L. Miles, & N. S. Thompson (Eds.), Anthromorphism, anecdotes, and animals: The emperor’s new clothes? Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
SCHUSTERMAN, R. J., GISINER, R., GRIMM, B. K., & HANGGI, E. B. (1993). Behavior control by exclusion and attempts at establishing semanticity in marine mammals using match-to-sample paradigms. In H. Roitblat, L. Herman, & P. Nachtigal (Eds.), Language and communication: Comparative perspectives (pp. 249–274). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
SCHUSTERMAN, R. J., & KREIGER, K. (1984). California sea lions are capable of semantic comprehension. The Psychological Record, 34, 3–23.
SKINNER, B. F. (1957). Verbal behavior. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
STEELE, D. L., & HAYES, S. C. (1991). Stimulus equivalence and arbitrarily applicable relational responding. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 56, 519–555.
STODDARD, L. T. (1982). An investigation of automated methods for teaching severely retarded individuals. In N. R. Ellis (Ed.), International review of research in mental retardation (pp. 163–207). New York: Academic Press.
STROMER, R. (1986). Control by exclusion in arbitrary matching to sample. Analysis and Intervention in Developmental Disabilities, 6, 59–72.
TEMPLIN, M. (1957). Certain language skills in children: Their development and interrelationship. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
TOMANAGA, M. (1993). Tests for control by exclusion and negative stimulus relations of arbitrary matching to sample in a “symmetry-emergent” chimpanzee. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 59, 215–229.
VINCENT-SMITH, L., BRICKER, D., & BRICKER, W. (1974). Acquisition of receptive vocabulary in the toddler-age child. Child Development, 45, 189–193.
WHITEHURST, G. J. (1996). On the origins of misguided theories of naming and other symbolic behavior. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of behavior, 65, 255–259.
WILKINSON, K. M., DUBE, W. V., & MciLVANE, W. J. (1996). A crossdisciplinary perspective on studies of rapid word mapping in psycholinguistics and behavior analysis. Developmental Review, 16, 125–148.
WILKINSON, K. M., & GREEN, G. (in press). Implications of “fast mapping” for vocabulary expansion in individuals with mental retardation. Augmentative and Alternative Communication.
WILKINSON, K. M., & MciLVANE, W. J. (1994a). Stimulus organization and learning by exclusion: A preliminary experimental analysis. Experimental Analysis of Human Behavior Bulletin, 12, 21–25.
WILKINSON, K. M., & MciLVANE, W. J. (1994b). Stimulus control analysis of exclusion-based mapping by adolescents with mental retardation: Implications for research and theories of vocabulary acquisition. Proceedings of the 27th Annual Gatlinburg Conference on Research and Theory in Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, 110.
WILKINSON, K. M., & MciLVANE, W. J. (1997). Contributions of stimulus control perspectives to psycholinguistic theories of vocabulary development and delay. In L. B. Adamson & M. A. Romski (Eds.), Research on communication and language disorders: Contributions to theories of language development (pp. 25–48). Baltimore, MD: Brookes.
WILKINSON, K. M., & McILVANE, W. J. (1997). Blank comparison analysis of emergent symbolic mapping by young children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 67, 115–130.
WOODWARD, A. L., & MARKMAN, E. M. (1991). Constraints on learning as default assumptions: Comments on Merriman and Bowman’s ‘The mutual exclusivity bias in children’s word learning’. Developmental Review, 11, 137–163.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wilkinson, K.M., Dube, W.V. & McIlvane, W.J. Fast Mapping and Exclusion (Emergent Matching) in Developmental Language, Behavior Analysis, and Animal Cognition Research. Psychol Rec 48, 407–422 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03395281
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03395281