Response Latencies to Multiple Derived Stimulus Relations: Testing Two Predictions of Relational Frame Theory

In Experiment 1, 3 college students were exposed to relational pretraining to establish the contextual functions of Same, Opposite, More Than, and Less Than in four arbitrary stimuli. Subjects were then trained on the matching-to-sample tasks A 1-81 and Y1-N1, in the presence of the More-Than contextual cue, A 1-82 and Y1-N2 in the presence of the Less-Than contextual cue, C1-D1 and E1 -D2 in the presence of the Same cue, and C1-D2 and E1-D1 in the presence of the Opposite cue. Test trials were subsequently administered to probe for the mutually entailed relations; Less-Than/81-A 1, Less-ThanlN1-Y1, More-Than/82-A1, More-Than/N2-Y1, Same/D1-C1, Same/D2-E1, Opposite/D2-C1, and Opposite/D1-E1. Response latencies to probes for derived Same/Opposite relations were significantly lower than those for derived More ThaniLess Than relations. Experiment 2 exposed 4 subjects to training across each of the four relations and used a novel stimulus set to test for reduced response latencies to the derived relations. Response latencies to More-ThaniLess-Than probes reduced significantly across the original to the novel stimulus set, whereas latencies to Same/Opposite probes were low across both stimulus sets.

[1]  W. V. Dube,et al.  Auditory successive conditional discrimination and auditory stimulus equivalence classes. , 1993, Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior.

[2]  Linda J. Hayes,et al.  The verbal action of the listener as a basis for rule-governance. , 1989 .

[3]  S. Hayes,et al.  Stimulus equivalence and arbitrarily applicable relational responding. , 1991, Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior.

[4]  B. Roche,et al.  A transformation of respondently conditioned stimulus function in accordance with arbitrarily applicable relations. , 1997, Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior.

[5]  D. Barnes,et al.  Stimulus equivalence and relational frame theory , 1994 .

[6]  Matthew Flatt,et al.  PsyScope: An interactive graphic system for designing and controlling experiments in the psychology laboratory using Macintosh computers , 1993 .

[7]  D. Barnes,et al.  A transformation of self-discrimination response functions in accordance with the arbitrarily applicable relations of sameness, more than, and less than. , 1995, Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior.

[8]  L Fields,et al.  The structure of equivalence classes. , 1987, Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior.

[9]  Bryan Roche,et al.  Arbitrarily Applicable Relational Responding and Sexual Categorization: A Critical Test of the Derived Difference Relation , 1996 .

[10]  S. Hayes Relational frame theory: A functional approach to verbal events. , 1994 .

[11]  E. Arntzen,et al.  Reaction Times and the Emergence of Class Consistent Responding: A Case for Precurrent Responding? , 2000 .

[12]  Simon Dymond,et al.  A transformation of self-discrimination response functions in accordance with the arbitrarily applicable relations of sameness and opposition , 1996 .

[13]  M Sidman,et al.  Contextual control of emergent equivalence relations. , 1989, Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior.

[14]  D. Barnes,et al.  A transfer of self-discrimination response functions through equivalence relations. , 1994, Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior.

[15]  D. Barnes,et al.  Analyzing derived stimulus relations requires more than the concept of stimulus class. , 1997, Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior.

[16]  Bryan Roche,et al.  Relational Frame Theory and Stimulus Equivalence are Fundamentally Different: A Reply to Saunders’ Commentary , 1996 .

[17]  S. Hayes,et al.  Transfer of a conditional ordering response through conditional equivalence classes. , 1988, Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior.

[18]  Murray Sidman,et al.  Equivalence Relations and Behavior: A Research Story , 1994 .

[19]  D. Barnes,et al.  Radical Behaviorism, Stimulus Equivalence, and Human Cognition , 1991 .

[20]  Dermot Barnes,et al.  Derived Relational Responding As An Operant: The Effects Of Between-Session Feedback , 1998 .

[21]  D. Barnes,et al.  Relating Equivalence Relations to Equivalence Relations: A Relational Framing Model of Complex Human Functioning , 1997, The Analysis of verbal behavior.

[22]  P N Chase,et al.  Speed analyses of stimulus equivalence. , 1996, Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior.

[23]  C. Kennedy Equivalence class formation influenced by the number of nodes separating stimuli , 1991, Behavioural Processes.

[24]  M Sidman,et al.  Reading and auditory-visual equivalences. , 1971, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[25]  B. Roche,et al.  Relational frame theory : A post-Skinnerian account of human language and cognition , 2004 .

[26]  Linda J. Hayes,et al.  Conceptual Differences in the Analysis of Stimulus Equivalence , 1999 .

[27]  D. Barnes,et al.  A transfer of functions through derived arbitrary and nonarbitrary stimulus relations. , 1993, Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior.

[28]  M. Sidman,et al.  Equivalence relations and the reinforcement contingency. , 2000, Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior.

[29]  B. Roche,et al.  Contextual Control over the Derived Transformation of Discriminative and Sexual Arousal Functions , 2000 .

[30]  M. Galizio,et al.  10 Stimulus equivalence: A class of correlations, or a correlation of classes? , 1996 .

[31]  R. Bentall,et al.  Naming and Equivalence: Response Latencies for Emergent Relations , 1993 .

[32]  L Fields,et al.  The effects of nodality on the formation of equivalence classes. , 1990, Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior.

[33]  B. Roche,et al.  Generating Derived Relational Networks Via The Abstraction of Common Physical Properties: A Possible Model of Analogical Reasoning , 2001 .