Smeets, P., Barnes, D., & Luciano, C. (1995). Reversal of emergent simple discrimination in children: A component analysis. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 60, 327-343.
The conditions for reversing emergent simple discriminations in children through stimulus contiguity were examined. Experiment 1 involved two phases. Baseline and Reversal. Baseline started with a color discrimination training, red omega (S+) vs yellow omega (S-). This task was followed by three tests (no programmed consequences), one with red omega (S+) vs yellow omega (S-), one with red lambda vs yellow pi, and one with black lambda vs black pi. Reversal involved the same sequence but with reversed contingencies for the training task, yellow omega (S+) vs red omega (S-). The test results in Baseline and in Reversal were positive for most children. Experiments 2-4 examined aspects of the protocol that may have contributed to the successful reversal of the form discrimination. These additional data indicate that for most children, the reversed emergent discrimination performance was a function of color-form contiguity in Baseline AND in Reversal rather than of the contingency reversal.