Association for Behavior Analysis International

The purpose of the present symposium is to present research which is going enlighten about emergent relations and equivalence classes in particular. In the first paper by Arntzen and Mensah present an experiment on observing matching-to-sample performance and stimulus sorting. The authors present two experiments to study how observing an MTS task performance will influence the formation of experimenter-defined classes in sorting tests, as well as the formation of equivalence classes in an MTS-based test for emergent relations. In the second paper, Aggio, Kruger, Nunes, and de Rose present an experiment on punishment of incorrect recognitions increased equivalence-based false memories. Aggio et al. have studied the effect of programmed consequences for incorrect responses in memory tests. The third paper by Vaidya presents on the relation between the definition and measurement of equivalence. The paper will discuss how the phenomenon of equivalence is defined influence a change in the way the phenomenon is measured. The last paper by Fields presents an experiment on how the neural correlates of decision making by various relations in equivalence classes. The paper shows that event related potentials recorded during the comparison stimuli measured neural correlates of decision making for each type of relation.

Graduate, researchers, etc,

Recent experimental studies attempted to provide an equivalence-based account of the phenomenon of false memories. In all these studies participants studied a list of stimuli. A later memory test later memory test presented stimuli from the list (targets), stimuli equivalent to targets (critical distracters) or unrelated to them (non-related distracters). Higher recall and/or recognition of critical than unrelated distracters documented equivalence-related false memories. The present study investigated the effect of feedback for incorrect responses in memory tests. In Phase 1 participants studied three patterns, each comprising two geometrical forms within a larger one. In Phase 2 one of the small geometric shapes and the larger form became equivalent to other shapes. The memory test (Phase 3) presented, for recognition, the patterns previously studied in Phase 1 (targets), patterns formed by some of the geometric shapes from targets and other shapes equivalent to them (critical distracters) and new patterns (unrelated distracters). The No Feedback Group had no differential consequences for responses in the test whereas the Feedback Group had a presumably aversive sound following errors. Both groups recognized significantly more critical than unrelated distractors, attesting equivalence-based false memories. Surprisingly, the Feedback Group showed significantly more equivalence-related false memories, insofar as this group recognized critical distractors nearly as frequently as targets.

Sidman and colleagues’ originally defined equivalence relations as the emergent interchangeability of conditional and discriminative stimulus functions. This definition was well aligned with the matrix of tasks and outcomes that defined stimulus equivalence classes. Tests for symmetry, transitivity, and equivalence, for example, were perfect and complete assays of this interchangeability. Sidman’s new formulation of equivalence relations, however, involves the inclusion of responses and the stimuli serving as reinforcers in the emergent relations. This new formulation also offers an expanded view of the kinds of contingencies that can produce emergent equivalence relations. This presentation will argue that the change in how the phenomenon of equivalence is defined also requires a change in the way the phenomenon is measured. The presentation will review data from non-typical preparations asking questions about equivalence relations in an effort to frame a discussion about the ways in which we measure and describe equivalence relations. The presentation will suggest an expansion of the tasks that measure equivalence and end with some directions for future research.

Equivalence classes were formed using a trace stimulus pairing paradigm that isolated the presentation of the sample and comparison stimuli, and restricted responding to a separate time window presented after the comparison. Event related potentials recorded during the comparison stimuli measured neural correlates of decision making for each type of relation. xxx analysis was used to identify deep sources of neural activation that accounted the patterns of surface activation produced by baseline, symmetrical, transitive, and equivalence relations. The deep sources of activation were correlated closely with known cognitive processes