Transformations of mathematical and stimulus functions

Following a pretest, 8 participants who were unfamiliar with algebraic and trigonometric functions received a brief presentation on the rectangular coordinate system. Next, they participated in a computer-interactive matching-to-sample procedure that trained formula-to-formula and formula-to-graph relations. Then, they were exposed to 40 novel formula-to-graph tests and 10 novel graph-to-formula tests. Seven of the 8 participants showed substantial improvement in identifying formula-to-graph relations; however, in the test of novel graph-to-formula relations, participants tended to select equations in their factored form. Next, we manipulated contextual cues in the form of rules regarding mathematical preferences. First, we informed participants that standard forms of equations were preferred over factored forms. In a subsequent test of 10 additional novel graph-to-formula relations, participants shifted their selections to favor equations in their standard form. This preference reversed during 10 more tests when financial reward was made contingent on correct identification of formulas in factored form. Formula preferences and transformation of novel mathematical and stimulus functions are discussed.     

The role of naming in stimulus categorization by preschool children

The purpose of the current study was to assess whether children would categorize pictures when taught the relevant listener and speaker behaviors separately. A category-sort test was used to assess emergent conditional relations. Category-sort trials consisted of looking at (Test 1) or tacting/labeling (Test 2) a sample stimulus and selecting the appropriate comparison stimuli. In Experiment 1, 4 children (3-5 years) were taught to tact pictures of six U.S. state maps as either north or south. An assessment was conducted to determine whether they would (1) correctly categorize or sort when presented with a visual sample and (2) select the correct stimuli when hearing their category names (listener behavior). Two of the children categorized the pictures during Posttest 1 after the initial (pairwise) tact training. The other 2 categorized after receiving additional tact training with all pictures presented together. However, one of them categorized only during Posttest 2. In Experiment 2, 4 children (3-5 years) were taught to select pictures when hearing their category names. An assessment was conducted to determine whether they would (1) correctly categorize or sort and (2) tact the stimuli (speaker behavior). One child categorized the pictures during Posttest 1, and two during Posttest 2. The other child required additional training with all pictures grouped together. When participants failed to categorize, they also failed to tact the pictures accurately. Taken together, results from Experiments 1 and 2 show that both speaker and listener behavior play an important role in stimulus categorization.     

Naming and categorization in young children: IV: listener behavior training and transfer of function

Following pretraining with everyday objects, 14 children aged from 1 to 4 years were trained, for each of three pairs of different arbitrary wooden shapes (Set 1), to select one stimulus in response to the spoken word /zog/, and the other to /vek/. When given a test for the corresponding tacts ("zog" and "vek"), 10 children passed, showing that they had learned common names for the stimuli, and 4 failed. All children were trained to clap to one stimulus of Pair 1 and wave to the other. All those who named showed either transfer of the novel functions to the remaining two pairs of stimuli in Test 1, or novel function comprehension for all three pairs in Test 2, or both. Three of these children next participated in, and passed, category match-to-sample tests. In contrast, all 4 children who had learned only listener behavior failed both the category transfer and category match-to-sample tests. When 3 of them were next trained to name the stimuli, they passed the category transfer and (for the 2 subjects tested) category match-to-sample tests. Three children were next trained on the common listener relations with another set of arbitrary stimuli (Set 2); all succeeded on the tact and category tests with the Set 2 stimuli. Taken together with the findings from the other studies in the series, the present experiment shows that (a) common listener training also establishes the corresponding names in some but not all children, and (b) only children who learn common names categorize; all those who learn only listener behavior fail. This is good evidence in support of the naming account of categorization.     

The role of multiple-exemplar training and naming in establishing derived equivalence in an infant

The conditions under which symmetry and equivalence relations develop are still controversial. This paper reports three experiments that attempt to analyze the impact of multiple-exemplar training (MET) in receptive symmetry on the emergence of visual-visual equivalence relations with a very young child, Gloria. At the age of 15 months 24 days (15m24d), Gloria was tested for receptive symmetry and naming and showed no evidence of either repertoire. In the first experiment, MET in immediate and delayed receptive symmetrical responding or listener behavior (from object-sound to immediate and delayed sound-object selection) proceeded for one month with 10 different objects. This was followed, at 16m25d, by a second test conducted with six new objects. Gloria showed generalized receptive symmetry with a 3-hr delay; however no evidence of naming with new objects was found. Experiment 2 began at 17m with the aim of establishing derived visual-visual equivalence relations using a matching-to-sample format with two comparisons. Visual-visual equivalence responding emerged at 19m, although Gloria still had not shown evidence of naming. Experiment 3 (22m to 23m25d) used a three-comparison matching-to-sample procedure to establish visual-visual equivalence. Equivalence responding emerged as in Experiment 2, and naming emerged by the end of Experiment 3. Results are discussed in terms of the history of training in bidirectional relations responsible for the emergence of visual-visual equivalence relations and of their implications for current theories of stimulus equivalence.     

Age-of-acquisition effects in novel picture naming: A laboratory analogue

Age-of-acquisition (AoA) effects are such that early-acquired items are more quickly recognized and produced than later acquired items. In this laboratory analogue, participants were trained to name a group of Greeble pictures with a novel nonsense name. We manipulated order of acquisition of the stimuli: Half of the stimuli were presented from the onset of training (early acquired) whilst the other half were introduced later in the training schedule (late acquired). At test, when early and late stimuli had equal cumulative frequency, early stimuli were named significantly faster than late items. In a second test, it was also found that visual duration thresholds were significantly smaller for the early items when participants were asked to name the critical items. These findings support the notion that order-of-acquisition effects can be manifest over a short time span in the laboratory, and that the effect of order of acquisition is distinct from mere frequency of exposure. The findings are consistent with the idea that AoA effects occurring over a large temporal scale may be a special case of more general order-of-acquisition effects, and both may be a general property of learning mechanisms.     

The role of historical intuitions in children's and adults' naming of artifacts

It is commonly assumed that artifacts are named solely on the basis of properties they currently possess; in particular, their appearance and function. The experiments presented here explore the alternative proposal that the history of an artifact plays some role in how it is named. In three experiments, children between the ages of 4 and 9 years and adults were presented with familiar artifacts whose appearance and function were then radically altered. Participants were tested as to whether they believed that the modified objects were still members of the artifact kind. Results indicate that object history becomes increasingly important over the course of development.     

Fluctuating confidence: the dynamic consequences of true/false affirmatives and denials on how a listener appraises their personal past

The present study examined the mnemonic consequences of true/false denials and affirmatives on how a listener appraises their personal past. To this end, participants (listeners) rated the extent to which they were confident certain events occurred during their childhood. They rated these events both before and after a confederate (speaker) denied or affirmed the occurrence of four different childhood events each, for a total of eight “rehearsed” events. For each set (denials and affirmatives) of events, half were true and half were false. In turn, this created four types of events (two each): true denials, true affirmatives, false denials, and false affirmatives. Additionally, half of the participants were told that the speaker was provided independent information about the veracity of the event’s occurrence (“expert” condition). Overall, listeners were less confident in the occurrence of false denial events, but more so when they believed the speaker to be more knowledgeable of the listeners memories, more confident in false affirmative events and, counter intuitively, more confident in the occurrence of true denial events. These results underscore the importance of a nuanced approach to the mnemonic consequences of true and false denials and affirmations in the course of social interactions.     

'Fascination', 'contagion' and naming what we do: rethinking the transcendent function

Taking 'The psychology of the transference' (Jung 1946) and 'Problems of modern psychotherapy' (Jung 1931) as its text, this paper begins by challenging the usefulness of the term 'transcendent function' in contemporary debate about the nature of 'imagination and psychic transformation in analysis'. It argues that Jung's language in The Practice of Psychotherapy (CW 16)-fascination, suffering, infection, influence-is closer and truer to the experience it describes than the philosophically inspired terms transcendent function and conflict of opposites. His ideas in these writings anticipate later trends in psychoanalytic theory concerning countertransference and the effect of one mind on another, and constitute a theoretical basis for the concept of mutual transformation. Jung's radical insistence on an analytic relationship founded on mutual unconsciousness as the locus of transformation cannot, it is argued, be satisfactorily accounted for by the traditional terminology.     

On the origins of naming and other symbolic behavior

We identify naming as the basic unit of verbal behavior, describe the conditions under which it is learned, and outline its crucial role in the development of stimulus classes and, hence, of symbolic behavior. Drawing upon B. F. Skinner's functional analysis and the theoretical work of G. H. Mead and L. S. Vygotsky, we chart how a child, through learning listener behavior and then echoic responding, learns bidirectional relations between classes of objects or events and his or her own speaker-listener behavior, thus acquiring naming-a higher order behavioral relation. Once established, the bidirectionality incorporated in naming extends across behavior classes such as those identified by Skinner as the mand, tact, and intraverbal so that each becomes a variant of the name relation. We indicate how our account informs the specification of rule-governed behavior and provides the basis for an experimental analysis of symbolic behavior. Furthermore, because naming is both evoked by, and itself evokes, classes of events it brings about new or emergent behavior such as that reported in studies of stimulus equivalence. This account is supported by data from a wide range of match-to-sample studies that also provide evidence that stimulus equivalence in humans is not a unitary phenomenon but the outcome of a number of different types of naming behavior.     

Competitor effects in naming objects and famous faces

The prior production of an alternative name increases the time taken to name a famous face. For example, naming a picture of the comedy actor “John Cleese” by the name of the character he played in the TV series Fawlty Towers (Basil Fawlty) increases the time required to subsequently produce the name “John Cleese”. This effect has been termed the “nominal competitor effect”. In contrast prior production of a property associated with a famous person has no effect on naming speed. For example, prior production of the name of the TV series Fawlty Towers does not slow subsequent production of “John Cleese”. The experiments reported explored analogous effects in object naming. Experiment 1 examined the effects of prior production of an alternative name (e.g., from American English or British English) and a semantic associate on the time taken to name line drawings of objects. It was found that prior production of an alternative name slowed object naming, but prior production of the name of a semantic associate did not. Experiment 2 demonstrated that cueing a specific name (e.g., the British English name) was not a necessary condition for the nominal competitor effect on object naming. Experiment 3 demonstrated that the nominal competitor effect on naming famous faces was also observed under both cued and uncued naming instructions. The data from both object and face naming are interpreted within the terms of current models of speech production.     

The role of common motor responses in stimulus categorization by preschool children

The purpose of this study was to assess the role of common motor responses as the "speaker" behavior on stimulus class formation, and the emergence of functional classes. Experiment 1 examined whether training one motor response to a set of three stimuli and a second motor response to another set of three stimuli would result in correct category-sort responses for 5 typically developing preschool children. Three of the children passed the categorization tests. Experiment 2 examined whether the classes formed in Experiment 1 were functional classes, and whether participants who did not pass categorization tests in Experiment 1 would do so following common vocal tact training. The 2 participants who failed categorization tests in Experiment 1 passed these tests in Experiment 2, although none of the participants passed the tests for functional classes. The results of the current study did not unequivocally support the naming hypothesis. Future research should therefore evaluate other possible sources of control that aid in stimulus categorization.     

汉字命名与句子阅读中的同音字密度效应

采用两个实验探讨同音字密度对于汉字识别的影响。实验一采用命名任务,结果发现高同音字密度的汉字的加工时间短于低同音字密度的汉字,说明在汉字识别中,同音字密度起促进作用;实验二运用眼动分析的方法,考察在句子阅读中的同音字密度效应。结果发现,读者对高、低同音字密度汉字的加工在各眼动指标上均没有显著差异,说明在正常句子阅读中,同音字密度的效应消失。     

Visual rapid naming and phonological abilities: different subtypes in dyslexic children

One implication of the double-deficit hypothesis for dyslexia is that there should be subtypes of dyslexic readers that exhibit rapid naming deficits with or without concomitant phonological processing problems. In the current study, we investigated the validity of this hypothesis for Portuguese orthography, which is more consistent than English orthography, by exploring different cognitive profiles in a sample of dyslexic children. In particular, we were interested in identifying readers characterized by a pure rapid automatized naming deficit. We also examined whether rapid naming and phonological awareness independently account for individual differences in reading performance. We characterized the performance of dyslexic readers and a control group of normal readers matched for age on reading, visual rapid naming and phonological processing tasks. Our results suggest that there is a subgroup of dyslexic readers with intact phonological processing capacity (in terms of both accuracy and speed measures) but poor rapid naming skills. We also provide evidence for an independent association between rapid naming and reading competence in the dyslexic sample, when the effect of phonological skills was controlled. Altogether, the results are more consistent with the view that rapid naming problems in dyslexia represent a second core deficit rather than an exclusive phonological explanation for the rapid naming deficits. Furthermore, additional non-phonological processes, which subserve rapid naming performance, contribute independently to reading development.     

The development of functional and equivalence classes in high-functioning autistic children: the role of naming.

The development of functional and equivalence classes was studied in four high-functioning, preschool-aged autistic children. Initially, all subjects failed to demonstrate match-to-sample relations indicative of stimulus equivalence among two three-member classes of visual stimuli. Then, 2 subjects showed emergence of those relations after they were taught to assign the same name to all members in each class. Next, subjects were taught names for new stimuli outside the match-to-sample format. On subsequent match-to-sample tests, 2 subjects demonstrated untrained conditional relations among the stimuli given a common name. New, unnamed stimuli were then related via match-to-sample training to stimuli from sets of named stimuli. Tests for emergent conditional relations between the new unnamed stimuli and the named stimuli yielded positive results for 1 subject and somewhat mixed results for 3 subjects. Finally, without naming, 2 subjects developed stimulus equivalence among two new three-member classes of visual stimuli. These data suggest that naming may remediate failures to develop untrained conditional relations, some of which are indicative of stimulus equivalence.