The role of bidirectional naming in the emergence of analogical relations in children

The role of bidirectional naming in the emergence of analogical relations was investigated in four typically developing children between the ages 5 and 7 years. All participants learned to tact both the categories (clothes, furniture, and vehicles) and relations (same and different) among nine stimuli. They were subsequently tested on analogical responding during which they were presented with two stimuli belonging to the same or different categories and asked to select the comparison that matched the sample. During the last analogy test, we asked participants to tell us why they selected a certain comparison. Relational tact training produced emergent analogical responding in two participants after exposure to relational listener tests, whereas the other two required direct training on baseline analogy relations. All participants met criterion during derived analogy tests in accordance with symmetry and transitivity. The results of this study suggest that participants passed analogy tests by relationally tacting the sample (i.e., speaker) and reacting to its product by selecting the correct comparison (i.e., listener). This supports and extends previous findings suggesting that children must also engage in behaviors consistent with bidirectional naming to respond accurately to analogy tasks.