title: Food- and nonfood-related differential outcomes in equivalence learning by adults with Prader-Willi syndrome.
abstract: Adults with Prader-Willi syndrome learned the conditional relations necessary for the formation of two equivalence classes under four conditions: (a) nondifferential, nonedible outcomes; (b) nondifferential, edible outcomes; (c) differential, nonedible outcomes; and (d) differential, edible outcomes. Tests for transitive relations revealed superior performance when the two differential outcomes procedures, in which a distinct reinforcer was associated with each stimulus set, were used during teaching. Performance on test trials following nondifferential outcomes training was better when edible outcomes were used during teaching for 4 of the 5 participants. An enhancement of performance on the derived relations separated by two or three nodal stimuli was seen when a differential outcomes procedure was used to teach the baseline conditional relations.
authors.affiliation: University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Joseph
authors.forename: J B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Overmier
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Thompson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001245:Association Learning; D003210:Concept Formation; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D004495:Education of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000523:psychology*; D005793:Generalization, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011218:Prader-Willi Syndrome / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D014163:Transfer, Psychology