Responder por exclusão envolvendo relações palavra-objeto e palavra-ação
Abstract
Responding by exclusion is defined, in conditional discriminations tasks, as the
immediate selection of a new stimulus, among other known stimuli, when a new sample
stimulus is presented. Responding by exclusion is usually investigated by using nameobject
relations as a baseline. However, generalization data of this behavior pattern to
other classes of words, such as verbs, are scarce. This study investigated exclusion
responding and learning of word-object (nouns) and word-action (verbs) relations in
children aged 24 to 29 months. The presentation order of conditions (Noun or Verb)
was counterbalanced across participants. After one, four, seven and 10 exclusion trials
learning probes were presented. Results showed that baseline training for the Verb
condition required a higher number of trials compared to the Noun condition. On the
first exclusion probe, participants consistently selected the new stimulus, although
greater variability was observed for the Verb condition. Only one participant showed
positive outcomes on the learning probes, for one of the relations of the Noun condition.
The study replicated previous findings on exclusion responding using nouns and
extended it to name-action (verb) relations and to children aged about two years. The
data points to the existence of different levels of learning and the need for a clear
specification of how to measure learning outcomes of exclusion responding.