International Journal of Comparative Psychology

The present study aimed to investigate whether children could acquire the oddity concept using olfactory stimuli. To this end, three children aged 3 to 6 years were concurrently trained on multiple odor oddity problems and tested with novel ones. The findings showed that the 6-year-old participant mastered the acquisition training and transferred this experience to the novel oddity problems in the transfer test, suggesting that the child had acquired a relational understanding of the difference between odd and identical odor stimuli. Factors influencing the acquisition of the oddity concept were discussed.