Definition
Derived Stimulus Relations refer to the emergence of new, untrained responses that occur when an individual is taught to make a small set of specific stimulus-stimulus relations. These relations are derived without direct reinforcement and emerge from an individual’s learning history. Essentially, derived stimulus relations allow individuals to make logical connections or inferences about relationships between stimuli that have not been explicitly taught.
Example
A behavior analyst teaches a child that the word “cat” is related to a picture of a cat (A=B) and that the picture of the cat is related to the spoken word “meow” (B=C). Through derived stimulus relations, the child can infer that the written word “cat” is also related to the spoken word “meow” (A=C), even though this specific relation was not explicitly taught. The ability to derive this untrained relation (A=C) demonstrates the emergence of derived stimulus relations.