Barnes-Holmes, Y., Barnes-Holmes, D., Roche, B., & Smeets, P. (2001). Exemplar training and a derived transformation of function in accordance with symmetry: II. The Psychological Record, 51, 589-604.
The authors, researchers at the National University of Ireland and Leiden University, conducted a study, using a multiple baseline design, to determine whether exemplar training in symmetry relations would readily facilitate the transformation of function in accordance with symmetry, when subjects were not provided with explicit name training. The study also examined whether pretraining that was formally similar to the symmetry test, but did not reinforce symmetry relations, would have the same facilitative effect as exemplar training. Experiment 3 replicated Experiment 1, except that subjects were exposed to object-action pretraining. Across Experiments 1 and 2, none of the 8 subjects show derived object-action (Experiment 1) or action-object (Experiment 2) symmetry until they received explicit symmetry training. Pretraining object-action responding in Experiment 3 appeared to facilitate symmetry, but only for 4 of the 8 subjects. For the 4 subjects who failed, symmetry emerged following exposure to exemplar training. Overall, the data are consistent with Relational Frame Theory.