Equivalent Stimuli Are More Strongly Related After Training With Delayed Matching Than After Simultaneous Matching: A Study Using the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) (original) (raw)
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Psychological Record, 1993
The role of individual stimulus names in the emergence of equivalence relations: The effects of paired-associates training between names. The Psychological Record, 43,[713][714][715][716][717][718][719][720][721][722][723][724] After matching-to-sample (MTS) establishment of six A-B and six B-C trained relations between 18 visual stimuli, and prior to MTS testing for the emergence of A-B-C equivalence classes, undergraduate subjects in Experimental Group A-B were orally taught discordant paired associations (PA) between the names they had given to the A stimuli and their names for the B stimuli. Group A-C similarly learned associations between names for A and C stimuli conflicting with potential A-C transitivity relations based on MTS training. A control group learned associations between A names and neutral names. In subsequent MTS tests equivalence relations emerged with very few errors in the control group. In Group A-B PA links between the names of stimuli often displaced MTS-trained relations and symmetrical relations between the visual stimuli. In Group A-C PA links more often displaced MTS-based emergent transitivity and equivalence relations. Emergent relations formed from combinations of PA-based A-B associations and MTS-based B-C relations could displace purely MTS-based transitivity and equivalence relations in Group A-B, but similar hybrid relations did not emerge in Group A-C to displace MTS-based trained relations or their symmetrical inversions. These results provide evidence for an effective facultative role for the names of individual stimuli in equivalence class formation, but not for their obligate involvement.
Stimulus equivalence and arbitrarily applicable relational responding
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 1991
Subjects' responses to nonarbitrary stimulus relations of sameness, oppositeness, or difference were brought under contextual control. In the presence of the SAME context, selecting the same comparison as the sample was reinforced. In the presence of the OPPOSITE context, selecting a comparison as far from the sample as possible on the physical dimension defined by the set of comparisons was reinforced. Given the DIFFERENT context, selecting any comparison other than the sample was reinforced. Subjects were then exposed to arbitrary matching-to-sample training in the presence of these same contextual cues. Some subjects received training using the SAME and OPPOSITE contexts, others received SAME and DIFFERENT, and others received SAME, OPPOSITE, and DIFFER-ENT. The stimulus networks established allowed testing for a wide variety of derived relations. In two experiments it was shown that derived performances were consistent with relational responding brought to bear by the contextual cues. In contexts relevant to the relation of sameness, stimulus equivalence emerged. Other kinds of relational networks emerged in the other contexts. Arbitrarily applicable relational responding may give rise to a very wide variety of derived stimulus relations. The kinds of performances seen in stimulus equivalence do not appear to be unique.
The Psychological Record, 2015
This study aimed to determine whether the exclusive positive conditional relations established by the matching-to-sample (MTS) procedure are sufficient for equivalence class formation, or whether the negative conditional relations established with stimuli of alternative classes are necessary for it. In Experiment 1, two 3-choice MTS procedures were compared regarding equivalence class formation. The standard MTS procedure, where negative relations among stimuli of alternative classes are trained, was compared to an altered MTS procedure, where negative relations with stimuli that were not positive to any sample were trained. In Experiment 2, the positive and negative control patterns established by the standard and altered MTS procedures were assessed. Experiment 3 compared 2 further variations: (a) training only 1 negative relation with stimuli of alternative classes in each training trial type (semi-standard MTS procedure) or (b) varying the negative stimuli that did not belong to any class (varied-altered MTS procedure). The overall results indicate that for participants demonstrating high positive conditional baseline relations and high negative relations to stimuli from alternative classes, the probability of equivalence class formation was high, but when participants showed only high positive conditional baseline relations, the probability of equivalence class formation was very low. All main theories of equivalence class formation have difficulty accounting for these results, and an account based on a learning history of classifying behavior is offered.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 2001
The precursor to the relational evaluation procedure (pREP) is a go/no-go successive discrimination procedure for examining stimulus equivalence. Previous research has shown that it does not readily produce equivalence responding unless some matching-to-sample (MTS) procedures are incorporated into the experimental sequence. Two experiments attempted to identify contextual cues that would generate equivalence responding on the pREP. Experiment 1 examined the effects of using abstract symbols or various verbal labels as response options on the pREP. Only the words same and different, when used as response options, reliably produced equivalence responding across 4 subjects. Experiment 2 examined different pretraining preparations designed to attach the functions of the words same and different to abstract symbols that could then be used as response options on the pREP. The most effective pretraining procedure involved multiple-exemplar training during which subjects were trained to respond to abstract symbols in the presence of pairs of stimuli that were either formally the same or different. The abstract symbols were subsequently used as response options with the pREP, and all subjects reliably demonstrated equivalence responding. The findings suggest that the relations of same and different may be fundamental to equivalence responding. These findings are discussed in terms of what they suggest about the nature of the equivalence phenomenon specifically and derived relational responding more generally.
Assessment of the relatedness of equivalent stimuli through a semantic differential
If stimulus equivalence is a model of meaning, abstract stimuli should acquire the meaning of meaningful stimuli equivalent to them. In Experiment 1, college students matched faces expressing emotions to arbitrary pictures, forming three classes of equivalent stimuli, each comprising an emotional expression and three arbitrary pictures. Semantic differential judgments by students who formed equivalence classes were similar to evaluations of the faces, and this similarity increased when delayed matching was used in training. Experiment 2 found that pictures distant 1-node from the faces were judged as similar to them and pictures distant 3-nodes were not. Therefore, abstract stimuli acquired functions of meaningful stimuli equivalent to them, but this depended on experimental parameters such as delayed matching and nodal distance.
The Psychological Record, 2011
Prior studies have shown that the establishment of equivalence classes using the simple-to-complex protocol significantly enhanced the emergence of other new equivalence classes under the simultaneous protocol (yield). The current experiment showed how those enhancement effects were influenced by each component of the protocol used to establish the initial equivalence classes.-Yield during the simultaneous protocol was not improved following the prior establishment of other baseline conditional discriminations alone. The prior establishment of the conditional discriminations plus symmetry testing produced a small increment in yield. The prior establishment of conditional discriminations plus transitivity testing produced a very large increment in yield. The prior establishment of conditional discriminations plus transitivity and symmetry testing, or symmetry~ transitivity and equivalence testing (Le., equivalence class formation) did not produce further increments in yield. Thus, the enhanced emergence of new equivalence classes under the simultaneous protocol was due to prior demonstrations of transitivity rather than to the prior establishment of other equivalence classes. Some possible behavioral processes responsible for these effects are discussed.
Equivalence Class Formation is Influenced by Stimulus Contingency
The Psychological Record, 2016
Three groups of subjects received training in stimulus equivalence classes with a respondent-type training procedure. Stimulus contingency was positive for the first group, zero for the second, and negative for the third. Afterwards, all participants were tested with a matching-to-sample task for four baseline relations (A1-B1, A2-B2, C1-B1, and C2-B2), four symmetry relations (B1-A1, B2-A2, B1-C1, and C2-B2), and four combined symmetry and transitivity relations (A1-C1, A2-C2, C1-A1, and C2-A2). After this, they were retrained and retested twice. Explicit reinforcement was not programmed during the training or testing phases. The number of subjects who learned the baseline relations and showed the emergence of derived relations was higher in the positive contingency group than in the zero or negative contingency groups, although in all cases at least one retraining phase was required in order to reach the criteria. This finding contributes to the literature suggesting that stimulus pairing is the fundamental variable underlying emergent stimulus functions.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 1997
In Experiment 1, 5 subjects were exposed to a stimulus-pairing procedure in which two nonsense syllables, identified by a letter-number code as A1 and C2, each predicted the onset of a sexual film clip, and the nonsense syllables A2 and C1 each predicted the onset of a nonsexual film clip. Subjects were then exposed to a matching-to-sample test in which the nonsense syllables A1 and A2 were presented as sample stimuli and C1 and C2 were presented as comparison stimuli and vice versa (i.e., C stimuli as samples and A stimuli as comparisons). All subjects matched A1 with C2 and A2 with C1. Subjects were then trained on the conditional discriminations A1-B1, A2-B2, B1-C1, B2-C2, after which the matching-to-sample test was again administered. All subjects continued to match A1 with C2 and A2 with C1 in accordance with the earlier stimulus-pairing contingencies. An additional 5 subjects were exposed first to conditional discrimination training and testing before being exposed to the incongruous stimulus pairing and matching-to-sample testing. Under these conditions, 4 of the 5 subjects always matched A1 with C1 and A2 with C2. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1, except that a matching-to-sample test was not administered following the initial training procedure. Under these conditions, matching-to-sample test performances were controlled by the contingencies that had immediately preceded the test. Experiment 3 indicated that initial matching-to-sample test performances were unlikely to change, even after repeated exposure to incongruous training and testing. Experiment 4 demonstrated that pretraining with unrelated stimulus sets increased the sensitivity of matching-to-sample test performances to incongruous contingencies when they were similar in format to those arranged during pretraining. These data may have implications for a behavioranalytic interpretation of attitude formation and change.
Neural correlates of derived relational responding on tests of stimulus equivalence
Behavioral and Brain Functions, 2008
Background: An essential component of cognition and language involves the formation of new conditional relations between stimuli based upon prior experiences. Results of investigations on transitive inference (TI) highlight a prominent role for the medial temporal lobe in maintaining associative relations among sequentially arranged stimuli (A > B > C > D > E). In this investigation, medial temporal lobe activity was assessed while subjects completed "Stimulus Equivalence" (SE) tests that required deriving conditional relations among stimuli within a class (A ≡ B ≡ C).