Sharing in Preschool Children: Facilitation, Stimulus Generalization, Response Generalization, and Maintenance

Abstract

Three approaches to facilitating verbal and physical sharing and of the generalizability and durability of the behaviors that were trained were investigated. During a free play period, groups of preschool children were taught to share verbally, to share physically, or to share verbally and physically; another group was not trained. Immediately following free play, the children were observed in a different setting. Follow‐up was conducted 4 weeks after training ended. Physical sharing that was durable and generalizable resulted only when children were taught to share verbally. Increases in physical sharing produced by training children to share only physically were not durable and did not generalize. Training both verbal and physical sharing produced results with a magnitude slightly greater than teaching just verbal sharing. Despite a lack of special programming, some of the treatment effects generalized to another setting and were maintained during the Follow‐up. There was response generalization of the effects of training verbal sharing to physical sharing but not vice versa. Problems with the concept of response class, a methodological suggestion for studying response generalization, and possibilities concerning why generalization and maintenance occurred without specific programming are discussed.

Sharing as a function of the number of play materials

“…This study confirms the assumptions of Barton & Ascione (1979), Warren, Rogers-Warren, & Baer (1976 and RogersWarren, Warren, & Baer (1977), who speculated that the number of play materials would affect the sharing behavior of young children.…”

“…In a study by Barton & Ascione (1979) At least one study has examined the number of toys and the effects upon children's behavior. Vliestra (1978) investigated the interaction effects of adult-directed activity, number of toys, and gender of child on social and exploratory behavior in 73 preschool children.…”

“…Barton & Ascione (1979) used more play materials than children in each group in an initial training session, although no rationale for this decision was noted.…”

“…The authors found that "social" toys dramatically increased the amount of observed cooperative play in seven-year-olds. In the Barton & Ascione (1979) study, preschool children were provided with "social" toys which the authors reported may have inflated the observed amount of sharing behavior. This study used "isolate" toys in order that the results could be attributed to the number of toys, not the type of toy.…”

Training Prosocial Behaviors to Young Children: An Analysis of Reciprocity With Untrained Peers

“…The results obtained with the three target children suggest that peer reciprocity may facilitate the maintenance of children's play invitations over time. DESCRIPTORS: peers, generalization, sharing, social behavior, children During the past several decades many researchers have demonstrated the operant nature of children's social behavior (e.g., Allen, Hart, Buell, Harris, & Wolf, 1964; Barton & Ascione, 1979; Hart, Reynolds, Baer, Brawley, & Harris, 1968;Hopkins, 1968;Rogers-Warren & Baer, 1976).…”