The Role of Individual Stimulus Names in The Emergence of Equivalence Relations: The Effects of Interpolated Paired-Associates Training of Discordant Associations Between Names

Dickins, David W.; Bentall, Richard P.; Smith, Andrew B.

doi:10.1007/bf03395908

Cited by 25 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 10 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…This proposal has been supported by fragmentary data culled from earlier studies of equivalence class formation (Lazar, Davis-Lang, & Sanchez, 1984;McDonagh, Mcllvane, & Stoddard, 1984;Saunders, Wachter, & Spradlin, Sidman, Kirk, & Willson-Morris, 1985). It has also been supported by more recent studies that systematically measured the choice performances (Dube, Green, & Serna, 1993;Fields, Adams, Newman, & Verhave, 1992;Fields, Adams, Verhave, & Newman, 1990;Kennedy, 1991;Kennedy, Itkonen, & Lindquist, 1994) and the reaction times (Bentall, Dickins, & Fox, 1993;Dickins, Bentall, & Smith, 1993;Wulfert & Hayes, 1988) occasioned by tests of emergent relations. The most recent support was provided by Fields, Adams, Verhave, and Newman (1993), who showed that nodal distance influenced transfer of responding among members of an equivalence class.…”

mentioning

confidence: 74%

“…The shape of the function can be understood by considering how nodal distance influences reaction times during baseline and emergent-relations probes. According to Bentall et al (1993), Dickins et al (1993), and Wulfert and Hayes (1988), reaction time is a direct function of the nodal distance that separates the stimuli in baseline relations and emergent relations. When transfer of responding is measured, the reaction times for response transfer should be a direct function of the nodal distance that separates the training stimulus from the transfer stimulus in an equivalence class.…”

Section: Reaction-time Data and Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In a replication of the current experiment, perhaps the training of long and short reaction times to the A and E stimuli, respectively, would yield maintained chronometric effects of nodal distance. Bentall et al (1993), Dickins et al (1993), and Wulfert and Hayes (1988) found that reaction time was a direct function of the nodal distance separating the stimuli in the baseline and emergent-relations tests for zero-and one-node relations. These reaction times were averaged across relations and subjects.…”

Section: Reaction-time Data and Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Maintained Nodal‐distance Effects in Equivalence Classes

Fields

Landon-Jimenez

Buffington

et al. 1995

J Exper Analysis Behavior

111

109

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Twelve subjects were trained to select one of two stimuli from a pair (the B pair) when presented with one of two stimuli from another pair (the A pair), thus establishing two AB relations, Al-BI and A2-B2. In a similar fashion, additional stimuli were used to establish BC, CD, and DE relations. Trials used to train all relations occurred in each session. Once performances were established, probe trials were introduced that tested for the emergence of untrained relations (e.g., BI-DI or Al-El).These emergent relations were categorized according to nodal distance (i.e., the number of stimuli across which transitivity would have to hold in order for the relation to emerge). For example, a test for A2-C2 crosses one node (B2), whereas a test for Al-El crosses three nodes (Bl, Cl, and Dl).Only 2 of the subjects formed equivalence classes. The evocation of class-appropriate responding by each emergent-relation probe was an inverse function of nodal distance for all 12 subjects. In addition, performance on the originally trained relations was disrupted by the introduction of probes. The 2 subjects who exhibited equivalence classes were then trained to make different numbers of key presses in the presence of each of the four A and E stimuli. In a response-transfer test, the B, C, and D stimuli evoked the responses trained to the A and E stimuli in the same equivalence class. Likelihood of class-appropriate responses was an inverse function of nodal distance, and this pattern persisted across testing. Reaction times in the transfer test were an inverted U-shaped function of nodal distance. Because training of the baseline relations occurred concurrently and the B, C, and D stimuli were presented an equal number of times before the transfer test, the test performances illustrate effects of nodal distance that were not confounded by order or amount of experience with the stimuli. The results imply that ordered, sequential exposure to individual stimulus relations may facilitate the development of equivalence classes and that the relatedness of stimuli within an equivalence class is a relatively permanent inverse function of nodal distance. Willson-Morris, 1985). It has also been supported by more recent studies that systematically measured the choice performances (Dube, Green, & Serna, 1993;Fields, Adams, Newman, & Verhave, 1992;Fields, Adams, Verhave, & Newman, 1990;Kennedy, 1991;Kennedy, Itkonen, & Lindquist, 1994) and the reaction times (Bentall, Dickins, & Fox, 1993;Dickins, Bentall, & Smith, 1993;Wulfert & Hayes, 1988) occasioned by tests of emergent relations. The most recent support was provided by Fields, Adams, Verhave, and Newman (1993), who showed that nodal distance influenced transfer of responding among members of an equivalence class.In all of these studies, however, the baseline relations were trained in a serial manner. As a result, nodal distance was confounded with the order of stimulus introduction during training and most likely with the number of times each stimulus was presented in

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 74%

Section: Reaction-time Data and Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Reaction-time Data and Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Maintained Nodal‐distance Effects in Equivalence Classes

Fields

Landon-Jimenez

Buffington

et al. 1995

J Exper Analysis Behavior

111

109

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Teaching common names for the abstract stimuli-the same name for all three stimuli in a particular ABC training set-facilitated SE formation, but this was not found when a different individual name was taught for each of the abstract stimuli. It was also possible, by giving paired-associate training between the names of icons, to effect SE relations between the icons themselves that conflicted with those based upon incompatible trained relations between the icons (D. W. Dickins, Bentall, & Smith, 1993;A. B. Smith, Dickins, & Bentall, 1996).…”

Section: Theoretical Accounts Of Sl and Sementioning

confidence: 99%

On Aims and Methods in the Neuroimaging of Derived Relations

Dickins

2005

Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Ingenious and seemingly powerful technologies have been developed recently that enable the visualization in some detail of events in the brain concomitant upon the ongoing behavioral performance of a human participant. Measurement of such brain events offers at the very least a new set of dependent variables in relation to which the independent variables familiarly manipulated in the operant laboratory may be explored. Two related paradigms in which a start has been made in such research concern the derivation of novel or emergent relations from a baseline set of trained relations, and include the phenomenon of transitive inference (TI), observed in studies of stimulus equivalence (SE) and serial learning (SL) or seriation. This paper reviews some published and forthcoming neuroimaging studies of these and related phenomena, and considers how this line of research both demands and represents a welcome synthesis between types of question and levels of explanation in behavioral science that often have been seen as antithetical.

show abstract

“…Test stimuli were presented and responses were recorded using Apple Macintosh IIci and LSII computers according to the method described by Bentall et al (1993) and Dickins, Bentall, and Smith (1993). Thirty stimuli from the Mobile picture font were used to establish six potential equivalence classes (see Figure 1).…”

Section: Apparatus and Test Stimulimentioning

confidence: 99%

Errors and Response Latencies as a Function of Nodal Distance in 5-Member Equivalence Classes

1999

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the relationship between nodal distance, response accuracy, and response latency during testing for emergent relations. In both experiments, undergraduate subjects first learned A-B, B-C, C-D, and D-E constituent relations of six 5-member equivalence classes. In Experiment 1, only selected tests of trained and of 0-, 1-, and 2-node tests of emergent relations were carried out in order to avoid testing of 0-or 1-node relations that might form constituents of the 2-node relations which were tested. In Experiment 2, all possible trained and derived relations were tested in random order. Although considerable individual variability was observed in both response times and accuracy for the 14 subjects completing Experiment 1, latencies for correct responses generally increased and response accuracy decreased as a function of nodal distance. There was no nodal distance effect for latencies of incorrect responses. In Experiment 2, these relationships between response times, response accuracy, and nodal distance were observed for 3-node relations in 5 out of 6 subjects. Analysis of error response latencies for 2 subjects who made sufficient errors revealed a nodal distance effect for 1 subject but not for the other. In both experiments, response times decreased as testing progressed, but response accuracy increased during testing only in the second experiment.In experiments on stimulus equivalence human subjects first learn a minimal number of relations between individual stimuli in a set. Each stimulus has a trained relation with at least one other in the set, so that all the stimuli are minimally interlinked. If the subjects are then able to demonstrate, without further training, additional relations between the Garside, B. Rogers, and S.Turner who contributed to the collection of data for Experiment 1. We also thank Tom Critchfield and William Dube for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

show abstract

The Role of Individual Stimulus Names in The Emergence of Equivalence Relations: The Effects of Interpolated Paired-Associates Training of Discordant Associations Between Names

Cited by 25 publications

References 10 publications

Maintained Nodal‐distance Effects in Equivalence Classes

Maintained Nodal‐distance Effects in Equivalence Classes

On Aims and Methods in the Neuroimaging of Derived Relations

Errors and Response Latencies as a Function of Nodal Distance in 5-Member Equivalence Classes

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About