Identity and Delay Functions of Meaningful Stimuli: Enhanced Equivalence Class Formation

Abstract

The inclusion of a meaningful stimulus in a set of abstract stimuli enhances the likelihood of forming an equivalence class with the set. Class enhancement effects can be due to the discriminative, conditional discriminative, and class-based behavioral functions served by the meaningful stimulus. This experiment determined whether acquisition of an identity conditional discriminative function by an abstract stimulus enhances the formation of an equivalence class of which it is a member along with other abstract stimuli. Forty adults attempted to form 3 three-node five-member equivalence classes (A→B→C→D→E) using the simultaneous protocol. In the PIC group, the C stimuli were pictures and the A, B, D, and E stimuli were abstract shapes. In the ABS group, all of the stimuli were abstract shapes. In the Id-S-MTS (identity simultaneous matching-to-sample) and Id-6sD-MTS (identity 6 s delayed matching-to-sample) groups, prior to class formation, identity conditional discriminations were formed with the C stimuli using simultaneous or 6 s delayed matching-to-sample procedures, respectively. Classes were formed by 80 and 60 % of participants in the PIC and delayed identity groups, and by 0 and 10 % of participants with no prior training (ABS group) or after forming identity relations on a simultaneous basis. These outcomes were confirmed with post class formation sorting tests. Thus, a portion of the class enhancing effects of meaningful stimuli can be attributed to their presumed delayed identity conditional discriminative function. Adventitious coding or mediating behavior during identity training might have influenced acquisition of baseline relations and likelihood of class formation.

A Simpler Route to Stimulus Equivalence? A Replication and Further Exploration of a “Simple Discrimination Training Procedure” (Canovas, Debert and Pilgrim 2014)

“…A naturally nameable stimulus is one that has meaning, in some sense of this complex concept. One behavioural analytic approach to meaning is exemplified in recent work by Fields et al (2012) and Arntzen et al (2014), which indicated that establishing one otherwise abstract stimulus as a discriminative stimulus, governing some other unrelated response, in each training class of five such stimuli made it much more likely that all five would form equivalence classes. This was in a context of linear training, and using the simultaneous protocol (all possible trained relations taught at the same time), in which the usual yield of equivalence class formation with all abstract stimuli was very low.…”

On the effectiveness of including meaningful pictures in the formation of equivalence classes

“…A recent line of research has explored the effects of including familiar color pictures as one of the stimuli in each potential class to model or mimic meaningfulness in a laboratory setting (Arntzen & Nartey, ; Arntzen, Nartey, & Fields, , , , ; Fields, Arntzen, Nartey, & Eilifsen, ; Mensah & Arntzen, ; Nartey, Arntzen, & Fields, , , ; Nedelcu, Fields, & Arntzen, ; Travis, Fields, & Arntzen, ; see also an overview in Fields & Arntzen, ). The common procedure in these experiments is to train adult participants on 12 conditional discriminations using a linear series (LS) training structure (A➔B➔C➔D➔E) and test for the formation of three 5‐member equivalence classes.…”

“…In the picture (PIC) group, the same abstract shapes serve as A, B, D, and E stimuli, but the abstract C stimuli, which occupy the middle position in the LS structure, are replaced with meaningful C stimuli: colorful pictures of items assumed to be familiar to human participants. Some of the studies have included groups that received training with the same stimuli as the ABS group, but also receive some form of preliminary training with the abstract C stimuli, including simple discrimination training (Fields et al, ), preliminary training with identity or arbitrary matching in combination with either simultaneous or delayed matching (Arntzen et al, ; Arntzen, Nartey et al, 2015), and preliminary training with meaningful pictures (Arntzen & Nartey, ). The main finding has been that inclusion of pictures as C stimuli substantially enhances equivalence class formation compared with the performance of the ABS group.…”

Reorganization of equivalence classes: effects of preliminary training and meaningful stimuli

“…Second, participants were taught a set of baseline relations for an equivalence class, which included that stimulus and other abstract stimuli. Class formation was enhanced if the abstract stimulus had first acquired a simple successive discriminative function (Arntzen et al, ), a simple simultaneous discriminative function (Arntzen et al, ), the combination of simple and successive discriminative functions (Arntzen et al, ; Fields, Arntzen, Nartey, & Eilifsen, ), an identity conditional discriminative function on a simultaneous or delayed basis (Arntzen et al, ; Fields et al, ), or an arbitrary conditional discriminative function on a simultaneous or delayed basis (Arntzen, Nartey, & Fields, ; Arntzen et al, ). In addition, class enhancement occurred if the successive discriminative function was over‐trained (Travis, Fields, & Arntzen, ), and if many arbitrary conditional discriminative functions were trained instead of just one (Nedelcu, Fields, & Arntzen, ).…”