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| Equivalence Classes: Determinants, Neural Correlates, Meaning, and Language |
| Monday, May 25, 2015 |
| 3:00 PM–4:50 PM |
| 007A (CC) |
| Area: EAB; Domain: Basic Research |
| Chair: Erik Arntzen (Oslo and Akershus University College ) |
| Abstract: The present symposium focuses on some important findings with the area of derived relations. The first paper by Arntzen and Nartey investigated the effect of the use of familiar pictures on the expansion of equivalence classes. After training to form two different sets of three 3-member classes with the linear series training structure, twenty children were then trained to connect the two middle nodes in the two different sets of classes. Participants were then tested for the formation of the expansion of these classes into three 6- member equivalence classes. Regardless of condition, when all the stimuli were familiar pictures, seven participants formed the six-member classes while only three participants formed classes using only abstract stimuli (see Figure 1). The second paper by Fields and Arntzen summarize the results of seven published experiments that have documented the effects of each of these variables. The class enhancement effects of meaningful stimuli were mimicked by an initially meaningless stimulus when laboratory training was used to establish one of the afore-mentioned stimulus control functions with that stimulus. Its subsequent inclusion in a set of other meaningless stimuli enhanced the formation of equivalence classes by that set. The third paper by Soares Filho, Clavijo-Alvarez, da Silva Barros, and Tomanari present on experiment that investigated the effects of positive and negative reinforcement on the acquisition of conditional discriminations and equivalence class formation in humans (see Figure 2). The fourth paper by Vaidya and Ortu, asked whether laboratory-generated conditional relations among stimuli would show properties commonly attributed to linguistic behavior. Investigations, both empirical and conceptual, are currently underway to further evaluate these two intriguing properties (see Figure 3). |
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| Variables Influencing Expansion of Equivalence Classes |
| ERIK ARNTZEN (Oslo and Akershus University College), Richard Nartey (Oslo and Akershus University College) |
| Abstract: The study investigated the effect of the use of familiar pictures on the expansion of equivalence classes. After training to form two different sets of three 3-member classes with the linear series training structure, twenty children were then trained to connect the two middle nodes in the two different sets of classes. Participants were then tested for the formation of the expansion of these classes into three 6- member equivalence classes. Using pictures as the nodes while the rest of the stimuli were abstract, half of the participants were exposed to a serialized introduction of the baseline conditional relations as the other half had the baseline conditional relations introduced on a concurrent basis. Six of ten participants formed the six-member classes following the serialized arrangement while three of ten did so following the concurrent arrangement. Thus, large equivalence classes were readily formed following serialized training of baseline relations than a concurrent training. In both conditions, those who formed the 6-member classes were then exposed to the formation of new six-member equivalence classes through the expansion of two different three 3-member classes involving only abstract stimuli while those who did not form classes attempted the formation of new 6-member classes involving familiar pictures only. Regardless of condition, when all the stimuli were familiar pictures, seven participants formed the six-member classes while only three participants formed classes using only abstract stimuli. Thus, the formation of large equivalence classes was enhanced with the use of familiar pictures as class members than when only abstract stimuli were used as class members. |
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| Behavioral functions of meaningful stimuli that enhance equivalence class formation |
| LANNY FIELDS (Queens College, City University of New York), Erik Arntzen (Oslo and Akershus University College) |
| Abstract: The inclusion of a meaningful stimulus in a set of other meaningless stimuli enhances the likelihood of forming an equivalence class from the stimuli in that set. Typically, the enhancement is attributed to the connotative properties of the meaningful stimulus. A meaningful stimulus however, also serves a number of behavioral stimulus control functions: a simple simultaneous discriminative function, a simple successive discriminative function, and the overtraining of the successive discriminative function. It can also serve as a member of an identity conditional relation, an arbitrary conditional relation, a number of such relations, and these relations on a simultaneous or a delayed basis. Finally, a meaningful stimulus can be functioning as a member of other equivalence classes or resemblance based classes. Thus, any or all of these stimulus control functions can account for the class enhancing effect of including a meaningful stimulus as the member of a to-be-formed equivalence class. The presentation will summarize the results of seven published experiments that have documented the effects of each of these variables. The class enhancement effects of meaningful stimuli were mimicked by an initially meaningless stimulus when laboratory training was used to establish one of the afore-mentioned stimulus control functions with that stimulus. Its subsequent inclusion in a set of other meaningless stimuli enhanced the formation of equivalence classes by that set. Thus, much of the class enhancing effects of meaningful stimuli was accounted for in terms of their acquired stimulus control functions instead of their connotative functions. |
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Do Equivalence Relations have Linguistic Properties? Behavioral and Neurophysiological Correlates of Emergent Symmetry |
| MANISH VAIDYA (University of North Texas), Daniele Ortu (University of North Texas) |
| Abstract: The last half of the 20th century can be described as a period of progressive growth in our understanding of language and language-related phenomena. This growth is due to important developments in key areas of language-related research. One of these developments comes from the electrophysiological study of brain activity (e.g., evoked reaction potentials or ERP) and another comes from the behavioral study of generative learning (e.g., stimulus equivalence or SE). In the current set of studies, we asked whether laboratory-generated conditional relations among stimuli would show properties commonly attributed to linguistic behavior. In Experiment 1, we documented the semantic priming effect with geometric stimuli embedded laboratory-generated equivalence relations. In Experiment 2, we documented the N400 effect with similar stimuli in laboratory-generated equivalence relations. These results suggest two intriguing possibilities: First, that laboratory-generated equivalence relations are effective models of behaving linguistically or second, that properties commonly attributed to linguistic behavior are in fact more broadly characteristic of associative relations generally. Investigations, both empirical and conceptual, are currently underway to further evaluate these two intriguing properties. |
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