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THE TRANSFER OF SAMENESS AND OPPOSITION CONTEXTUAL-CUE FUNCTIONS THROUGH

EQUIVALENCE CLASSES

William Perez Roberta Kovac

Yara NicoAdriana Fidalgo

Daniel Caro

Núcleo Paradigma de Análise do Comportamento – São Paulo, Brazil


STIMULI FUNCTIONS IN A RELATIONAL NETWORK

A

B Cfunction (X, Y, Z)

• Stimuli may have different functions: SD, Sav, Sref … (e.g., Augustson & Dougher, 1997; de Rose et al., 1988, Dougher et al., 1994; Hayes, Kohlemberg, & Hayes, 1991)

relation (S, O, D)

• And might also be related in different ways: coordination,difference, comparison … (e.g. Dymond & Barnes, 1995; Steele & Hayes, 1991; Dougher et al., 2007; Gil, Luciano, Ruiz, Valdivia-Salas 2012)


CONTEXTUAL CONTROL OF STIMULUS FUNCTIONS

A

B Cf X

• Sidman (1992; 1994)

• Hayes (1991)

• Hayes & Hayes (1992)

• Dougher et al. (2002)

• Hayes, Barnes-Holmes, & Roche (2001)

f Y

f ZCfunc

Crel same difference


CONTEXTUAL CONTROL AS A STIMULUS FUNCTION

• Previous studies suggested that contextual control is a stimulus function itself.

• Gatch & Osborne (1989)

• Perez, Fidalgo, Nico, & Kovac (2012)


CONTEXTUAL CONTROL AS A STIMULUS FUNCTION

• Perez, Fidalgo, Nico, & Kovac (2012)

• Established equivalence classes and different functions for one stimulus of each class.

• The function at play would vary in accordance with a background color (Cfunc)

• e.g., If yellow, given A1, press “Z”

• e.g., If blue, given A1, press “X” ...

• When the background colors were established as equivalent to certain line patterns (horizontal and vertical), such line patterns acquired the same function (Cfunc) of the background colors.


OBJECTIVE

The transformation (or transfer) of contextual stimulus functions were already documented with:

contextual stimulus that control the arrangement of the relational network (Gatch & Osbourne, 1989).

contextual stimulus that control which stimulus function is operative in a given moment (Cfunc) (Perez, Fidalgo, Nico, & Kovac, 2012)

The present study aimed at extending previous findings on transformation of contextual stimulus functions for the stimuli that control the type of relation established within a relational network

Crel for Sameness and Opposition


METHOD

• Participants

• 10 adults

• Setting and equipment

• A silent room

• PC

• Software in Visual Basic


PROCEDURE

• Procedure (similar to Whelan & Barnes-Holmes, 2004)

• Experimental Task

• MTS using contextual stimulus

• Stimuli (abstract figures, nonsense words) were presented sequentially

• Feedback:

• correct choices: +1 point and ascendant sound

• incorrect choices: 0 point and a dissonant sound


1) ESTABLISHING THE CONTEXTUAL CUES (CREL)

(SAME) (OPPOSITE)


2) CONTEXTUAL CUE TEST

Without feedback


RESULTS


3) ARBITRARY TRAINING

A1

B1

C1

B2

C2TRAINED RELATIONS


4) DERIVED RELATIONS (TEST)

A1

B1

C1

B2

C2

TRAINED RELATIONS

DERIVED RELATIONS


RESULTS

5) Establishing equivalent contextual cues

SAME

equivalence

equivalence

OPPOSITE

5) Establishing equivalent contextual cues

* Delayed matching-to-sample task (0 s)

SAME OPPOSITE


RESULTS


6) TRANSFER OF FUNCTION (CREL) TEST

A1

B1

C1

B2

C2

TRAINED RELATIONS

DERIVED RELATIONS


(SAME) (OPPOSITE)

6) TRANSFER OF FUNCTION (CREL) TEST


7) TRANSFORMATION OF “MEANING”

A1

B1

C1

B2

C2

TRAINED RELATIONS

GOOD

? ?

??

* Bortoloti & de Rose

DERIVED RELATIONS


7) TRANSFORMATION OF “MEANING”

A1

B1

C1

B2

C2

TRAINED RELATIONS

DERIVED RELATIONS

HOT

?

?

??

* Bortoloti & de Rose, 2012


7) TRANSFORMATION OF MEANING

Fill the blanks: 1) If MURBEN is “soft”, then:CIPHER =_________RIGUND =_________LEWOLY =_________BETRCT =_________ 2) If CIPHER é “good”, then:MURBEN =_________RIGUND =_________BETRCT =_________LEWOLY =_________ 3) Se RIGUND é “full”, then:LEWOLY =_________BETRCT =_________CIPHER =_________MURBEN =_________

• 15 questions

• 3 different meanings for each stimulus


RESULTS

control = didn’t pass the derivation test


DISCUSSION

• The present study investigated the transfer of contextual-cue function (Crel) for

sameness and opposition through equivalence classes.

• The results of 5 participants suggest that Crel function might be indirectly

acquired via transformation (or transfer) of function.

• These results extend previous findings (e.g., Gatch & Osborne, 1989; Perez et

al., 2012) on different contextual-stimulus functions that might be transferred

through equivalence classes:

• Contextual cues that (re)organize classes (Gatch & Osborne, 1989)

• Cfunc (Perez et al., 2012)

• Crel (present study)


DISCUSSION

• 5 participants didn’t pass on the derivation tests even after repeating the

procedure several times. Some of them seamed to respond to contextually

controlled equivalence classes (see Bush, Sidman, & de Rose, 1989; Gatch &

Osborne, 1989) instead of relational networks based on sameness and

opposition.

• Future studies should:

• investigate the effects of the number of exemplars used to establish the contextual

cues upon the performance on the derivation test.

• reverse the relational networks in order to corroborate the effects of the type of

relation established on the transformation of function tests (Whelan & Barnes-

Holmes, 2004).

• investigate the transformation (not the transfer) of contextual-cue functions


DISCUSSION

• The transformation of function, a fundamental feature of derived relational

responding (Hayes et al., 2001; Whelan & Barnes, 2004), was attested by

the transformation of meanings attributed to the arbitrary stimuli.

• Future study should keep investigating how transformation of

function can be verbally measured in tests of this sort (e.g., Bortoloti &

de Rose, 2009).


DISCUSSION

• In order to account for the complexity of language and cognition, studies

should consider that the expansion of relational networks might involve not

only the stimuli that are related but also the contextual cues that specify the

type of relational responding involved - i.e. contextual cues themselves (Cfunc,

Crel) might also be part of relational networks and have their functions

transformed.


DISCUSSION

• ACT interventions do not aim to change relational

networks or stimulus functions themselves. Instead,

their goal is to change the context in which such

functions occur. • Comprehending how contextual functions (Cfun, Crel)

work and how they can be transformed is an important

step in order to account for the behavioral processes

involved in ACT interventions. The present study is a

small step in this direction.


CONTACT

THANK YOUE-MAIL: [email protected]

www.nucleoparadigma.com.br [email protected]@nucleoparadigma.com.br the transfer...

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