Transfer of baseline reject control to transitivity trials and its effect on equivalence class formation

Abstract

This study explored the role of baseline reject control on transitivity responding. In Experiment 1, participants learned to respond to a baseline of arbitrary AB and AC conditional relations, and then they were exposed to transitivity‐like BC and CB trials in which the correct comparison stimulus was replaced by a novel stimulus (D). Five of 10 participants selected stimulus D, but only 1 showed expansion of the baseline stimulus classes to include the D stimuli. In Experiment 2, the emergence of symmetry and transitivity from baseline relations was assessed before participants were exposed to the transitivity‐like trials. Six of 8 participants who showed emergence of equivalence relations selected the D stimuli on transitivity‐like trials and provided evidence that baseline classes expanded to include these stimuli. In Experiment 3, these 6 participants selected novel stimuli (E) in additional transitivity‐like trials, and all showed that the E stimuli had become members of the previously established classes, which now comprised 5 members. A route for the emergence of transitivity by way of the transfer of baseline between‐classes reject control is discussed.

Discriminação de Categorias de Estímulos Visuais em Macacos-Prego (Sapajus spp.)

“…Considerando a dificuldade de se obter em laboratório, com animais (não humanos), a formação de relações condicionais arbitrárias interrelacionadas e de se obter evidências de emergência de relações apenas indiretamente treinadas entre estímulos dissimilares (Brino et al, 2014;Rico et al 2015;Sidman et al, 1982), neste estudo empregamos um procedimento de mudanças repetidas de discriminações simples com 12 escolhas simultâneas para favorecer as escolhas por seleção (Brino et al, 2014;Johnson & Sidman, 1993;Plazas, 2019), e a formação e expansão de categorias com base em similaridades gradualmente menores entre os estímulos (McIlvane et al, 2016). Hipotetiza-se que a formação de tal linha de base poderia eventualmente, facilitar a inserção de estímulos arbitrários nas categorias e possibilitaria testar a emergência de relações com membros das categorias não diretamente associados ao estímulo arbitrário inserido.…”

Effective use of the blank comparison procedure in simple discrimination by infant capuchin monkeys: A methodological note

“…As Carrigan and Sidman (1992) pointed out, there is also the logical possibility that selection of S+ may sometimes (or even always) occur because the subject responds away from the S‐ (so‐called reject relations), perhaps especially if procedures are implemented that bias subjects to do so (Johnson & Sidman, 1993). Notably, empirical work has indicated that development of both select and reject relations may be implicated in equivalence class formation and the emergent expansion of relational repertoires (e.g., Carr et al, 2000; Perez et al, 2015; Plazas, 2019).…”