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Responding and Learning by Exclusion in 2-Year-Olds: The Case of Adjectives

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Abstract

Responding by exclusion, usually investigated using a baseline of auditory-visual conditional discriminations for which auditory samples are names, is a robust phenomenon; however, it lacks generality to other lexical word classes. This study had two purposes: (1) to assess the generality of learning by exclusion to word–object property relations, and (2) to evaluate the effect of additive exclusion trials on learning outcomes. Children (aged 24 to 29 months) were taught auditory-visual baselines for three object name–object relations (Noun condition) and/or three adjective (emotion) names–facial expressions relations (Adjective condition). Each baseline and its associated tests were presented sequentially; the order was counterbalanced across participants. After baseline performance met criterion, exclusion, control, and learning outcome trials in extinction were intermixed with reinforced baseline trials, and followed by additive reinforced exclusion trials and learning outcome tests. More trials to criterion were required to establish the Adjective baseline, but the exclusion and learning outcome results of both conditions were comparable, suggesting that responding and learning by exclusion have generality across stimulus (lexical) types. Additive exclusion trials increased learning outcomes, especially for one type of learning probe. The necessary and sufficient tests to determine learning outcomes of exclusion responding still deserve discussion and investigation.

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  1. Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia sobre Comportamento, Cognição e Ensino (INCT-ECCE), Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Rodovia Washington Luís, Km 235, São Carlos, SP, Brazil, 13.561-381

    Thais Arantes Ribeiro, Tamiris Poletini Gallano, Debora de Hollanda Souza & Deisy das Graças de Souza

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  1. Thais Arantes Ribeiro
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Correspondence to Thais Arantes Ribeiro.

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This research was part of the scientific program of the National Institute of Science and Technology on Behavior, Cognition, and Teaching (INCT-ECCE), supported by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq; Grant #573972/2008-7), and by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP; Grant #08/57705-8). T. A. Ribeiro was supported by a Master’s fellowship from FAPESP (Grant #2010/13911-3). T. P. Gallano was supported by a scholarship for undergraduate research from CNPq (Grant #147482/2011-9). Deisy de Souza was supported by a Research Productivity grant from CNPq. We thank Aline Roberta da Costa and William McIlvane for their support of this research. We also thank Cammarie Johnson (at New England Center for Children) for comments and suggestions that greatly improved the manuscript.

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Ribeiro, T.A., Gallano, T.P., Souza, D.d. et al. Responding and Learning by Exclusion in 2-Year-Olds: The Case of Adjectives. Psychol Rec 67, 293–314 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40732-016-0213-0

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