Núcleo Paradigma de Análise do
Comportamento – São Paulo, Brazil
THE TRANSFER OF SAMENESS AND OPPOSITION
CONTEXTUAL-CUE FUNCTIONS THROUGH
EQUIVALENCE CLASSES
William Perez
Roberta Kovac
Yara Nico
Adriana Fidalgo
Daniel Caro
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STIMULI FUNCTIONS IN A
RELATIONAL NETWORK
A
relation (S, O, D)
function (X, Y, Z) B
C
• 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)
• 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)
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CONTEXTUAL CONTROL OF
STIMULUS FUNCTIONS
A
Crel
Cfunc
same
fY
fX
fZ
B
difference
C
• Sidman (1992; 1994)
• Hayes (1991)
• Hayes & Hayes (1992)
• Dougher et al. (2002)
• Hayes, Barnes-Holmes, & Roche (2001)
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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)
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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.
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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
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METHOD
• Participants
• 10 adults
• Setting and equipment
• A silent room
• PC
• Software in Visual Basic
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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
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1) ESTABLISHING THE
CONTEXTUAL CUES (CREL)
(SAME)
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(OPPOSITE)
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1) ESTABLISHING THE
CONTEXTUAL CUES (CREL)
(SAME)
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(OPPOSITE)
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2) CONTEXTUAL CUE TEST
Without feedback
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RESULTS
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3) ARBITRARY TRAINING
B2
B1
A1
C1
C2
TRAINED RELATIONS
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4) DERIVED RELATIONS (TEST)
B2
B1
A1
C1
C2
TRAINED RELATIONS
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DERIVED RELATIONS
RESULTS
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5) Establishing equivalent
contextual cues
SAME
equivalence
OPPOSITE
equivalence
5) Establishing equivalent
contextual cues
SAME
* Delayed matching-to-sample task (0 s)
OPPOSITE
RESULTS
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6) TRANSFER OF FUNCTION
(CREL) TEST
B2
B1
A1
C1
C2
TRAINED RELATIONS
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DERIVED RELATIONS
6) TRANSFER OF FUNCTION
(CREL) TEST
B2
B1
A1
C1
C2
TRAINED RELATIONS
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DERIVED RELATIONS
6) TRANSFER OF FUNCTION
(CREL) TEST
(SAME)
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(OPPOSITE)
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7) TRANSFORMATION OF
“MEANING”
B2
B1
?
?
A1
GOOD
C1
C2
?
?
TRAINED RELATIONS
* Bortoloti & de Rose
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DERIVED RELATIONS
7) TRANSFORMATION OF
“MEANING”
B2
B1
?
HOT
A1
?
C1
C2
?
?
TRAINED RELATIONS
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DERIVED RELATIONS
7) TRANSFORMATION OF
MEANING
Fill the blanks:
• 15 questions
1) If MURBEN is “soft”, then:
CIPHER =_________
RIGUND =_________
LEWOLY =_________
BETRCT =_________
• 3 different meanings for
each stimulus
2) If CIPHER é “good”, then:
MURBEN =_________
RIGUND =_________
BETRCT =_________
LEWOLY =_________
3) Se RIGUND é “full”, then:
LEWOLY =_________
BETRCT =_________
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CIPHER =_________
MURBEN =_________
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RESULTS
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control = didn’t pass the derivation test
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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)
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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 & BarnesHolmes, 2004).
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• 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).
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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.
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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.
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CONTACT
THANK YOU
E-MAIL: [email protected]
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