Barnes, D., & Keenan, M. (1994). Response-reinforcer contiguity and human performance on simple time-based reinforcement schedules. The Psychological Record, 44, 63-90.
The authors, researchers at the Lieden University and Behavioral Analysis Unit (Netherlands), replicated a study by P. M. Smeets and S. Striefel (1994) to examine the finding that arbitrary form-color relations may be acquired through nonreinforced exposure to identity matching tasks with complex stimuli. It is hypothesized that these findings may have resulted from either (1) the requirement to respond discriminatively to both elements of color and form, (2) the stimuli serving as samples and as comparisons, or (3) the chained tasks producing strings of perceptually related stimuli. Ss were 8 children (aged 5.0-5.5 yrs) who performed comparison tasks. Results support the 1st hypothesis.