Learning Name-Object Relations After a Single Exclusion Trial in 18-to 48-Month-Old Children

Author(s)

Schmidt, Anderia ^{[1, 2]} ; de Oliveira Franco, Mariana Guedes ^[1] ; Lotorio, Lucas dos Santos ^[1] ; Gomes, Geovana Figueira ^[1]

Affiliation

^[1] Univ Sao Paulo, Dept Psychol, Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[2] Univ Sao Paulo, Dept Psicol, Fac Filosofia Ciencias & Letras Ribeirao Preto, Ave Bandeirantes 3900, BR-14040901 Sao Paulo - Brazil

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: PSYCHOLOGICAL RECORD; v. 66, n. 1, p. 53-63, MAR 2016.
• Web of Science Citations: 3

Abstract

Responding by exclusion is a well-documented phenomenon, but data on the maintenance of word-object relations acquired using this procedure are highly variable. The present study included a sample of 80 children, ages 18 to 48 months, to determine whether age is a critical variable in learning name-object relations after a single exclusion trial. The sample was divided into 4 groups according to age. After establishing a baseline of auditory-visual discrimination (familiar names and objects) in matching-to-sample tasks, 3 test blocks were conducted. Each block had 8 baseline trials and 2 probe trials: an exclusion probe (i. e., an unknown name was dictated, and the comparisons were 2 familiar toys, an unknown toy, and a blank comparison) and a learning probe that verified whether the relationship established between the unknown stimuli on the exclusion probe was maintained in a further test trial. The majority of the children chose unknown objects in the exclusion probes. Analyses of the proportion of correct responses in the learning probes revealed a significant difference in performance between the groups of younger (18-30 months) and older children (31-48 months), indicating an improvement in learning the name-object relations after a single exclusion trial in the groups of older children. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 08/57705-8 - Institute for the Study of Behavior, Cognition and Teaching
• Grantee: Deisy das Graças de Souza
• Support Opportunities: Research Projects - Thematic Grants
• FAPESP's process: 10/12156-7 - Learning by exclusion of name-object relation in different age groups of children
• Grantee: Andréia Schmidt
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants