Sidman and Tailby (1982) established procedures to analyze the nature of stimulus to stimulus relations established by conditional discriminations. Their research describes specific behavioral tests to determine the establishment of properties that define the relations of equivalence. An equivalence relation requires the demonstration of three conditional relations: reflexivity, symmetry, and transitivity. The equivalence stimulus paradigm provides a method to account for novel responding. The research suggests that equivalence relations provide a more efficient and effective approach to the assessment, analysis, and instruction of skills. The present research examined the effectiveness of the formation of an equivalence class in teaching young children coin value relations. The second aspect of the study was to determine if there was a relationship between equivalence class formation and generalization of the skills established to other settings. Five children, 4- and 5-years old, were selected to participate in the study based on their lack of skills in the area of coin values and purchasing an item with dimes or quarters equaling fifth cents. The experimental task was presented on a Macintosh computer with HyperCard programming. The experimental stimuli consisted of pictures of dimes, quarters, and Hershey candy bars presented in match-to-sample procedures. Two conditional discriminations were taught (if A then B and if B then C.). The formation of an equivalence class was evaluated by if C then A. Generalization across settings was tested after the formation of an equivalence class by having the children purchase a Hershey candy bar with dimes at a play store. A multiple baseline experimentaldesign was used to demonstrate a functional relationship between the formation of an equivalence class and generalization of skills across settings. The present research provides supportive evidence that coin value relations can be taught to young children using equivalence procedures. The study also demonstrated generalization of novel, untaught stimuli across settings, after the formation of an equivalence class. A posttest on generalization across settings was conducted 3 months after the study. Long-term stability of equivalence relations was demonstrated by three of the subjects. / Department of Special Education

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:26:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-11-22Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:08:00Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 sacramento_aj_me_sjrp.pdf: 3231856 bytes, checksum: 0136158c9dd1d9766f0bd327e206e676 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / O objetivo deste trabalho é estudar a equivalência de contato topológica dos germes de aplicações diferenciáveis tendo como plano de fundo o estudo da equivalência de contato clássica (ou C∞-K-equivalência). Neste sentido, apresentamos inicialmente uma análise detalhada sobre alguns invariantes e propriedades clássicas da equivalência de contato e, em seguida, introduzimos o estudo da versão topológica desta relação de equivalência. A equivalência de contato topológica (ou C0-K-equivalência) é um tema que recentemente ganhou o interesse de vários pesquisadores por se tratar de uma relação de equivalência cujos invariantes, propriedades e classi cações são pouco conhecidos ou inexistentes. Sob esta ótica, investigamos se alguns invariantes encontrados no caso clássico poderiam ser reproduzidos ou adaptados para o caso topológico. Como parte principal do trabalho, apresentaremos um invariante completo para a equivalência de contato topológica introduzido por T. Nishimura [22]. Este invariante é dado para germes de aplicações nitamente determinadas cujas dimensões da fonte e da meta coincidem / The goal of this work is to study the topological contact equivalence of smooth map germs having as background the study of the classical contact equivalence (or C∞-Kequivalence). In this sense, we rstly present a detailed analysis of some invariants and classical properties of the contact equivalence, and then we introduce the study of the topological version of this equivalence relation. Recently several researchers have been interested in this subject because it is an equivalence relation whose invariants, properties and classi cations are unknown or nonexistent. In this work we investigate if some invariants of contact equivalence could be reproduced or adapted for the topological case. In chapter 3 we present a complete invariant for the topological contact equivalence introduced by T. Nishimura [22]. This invariant is given to nitely determined map germs whose dimensions of the source and target are equal

Orientador: Marcelo José Saia / Banca: Claudio Aguinaldo Buzzi / Banca: João Nivaldo Tomazella / Resumo: Neste trabalho estudaremos a equivalência de contato a fim de compreender seu papel na Cr-classificação dos germes Cr-estáveis, 0 ≤ r ≤ ∞. No caso r = ∞, este é um resultado clássico em Teoria de Singularidades provado por J. Mather [9]. Baseados nos artigos [12] e [11] de T. Nishimura, o principal objetivo deste trabalho é mostrar que existe uma versão do resultado de Mather que diz respeito à Cr-A-classificação de germes Cr-estáveis, 0 ≤ r ≤ ∞. / Abstract: In this work we study the contact equivalence in order to understand its role in the Cr-classification of Cr-stable map germes, 0 ≤ r ≤ ∞. In the case r = ∞, this is a classical result in Singularity Theory proved by J. Mather [9]. Based on the T. Nishimura's papers [12] and [11], the main goal of this report is to show that there exists a version of the Mather's result that is about the Cr-A-classification of Cr-stable map germs, 0 ≤ r ≤ ∞. / Mestre

The present study evaluated the utility of the methods outlined in the Promoting the Emergence of Advanced Knowledge Relational Training System Equivalence Module (PEAK-E) through a single-case evaluation. Validity, reliability, and effectiveness were the variables explored to assess the degree to which the assessment was able to identify appropriate skills for targeted intervention, and the degree to which the programs were efficacious in teaching the targeted skills. Baseline results suggested that the programs identified through the PEAK-E assessment were not within the participants’ repertoires prior to the intervention. Following the implementation of 9 programs across three participants with autism, mastery was achieved for all of the directly trained relations, and all targeted derived relations emerged for 8 of the 9 programs

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:26:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-02-22Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:47:15Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 batista_eb_me_sjrp.pdf: 630035 bytes, checksum: f7b871201fb529b58fda486e82ab9d9d (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Neste trabalho estudaremos a equivalência de contato a fim de compreender seu papel na Cr-classificação dos germes Cr-estáveis, 0 ≤ r ≤ ∞. No caso r = ∞, este é um resultado clássico em Teoria de Singularidades provado por J. Mather [9]. Baseados nos artigos [12] e [11] de T. Nishimura, o principal objetivo deste trabalho é mostrar que existe uma versão do resultado de Mather que diz respeito à Cr-A-classificação de germes Cr-estáveis, 0 ≤ r ≤ ∞. / In this work we study the contact equivalence in order to understand its role in the Cr-classification of Cr-stable map germes, 0 ≤ r ≤ ∞. In the case r = ∞, this is a classical result in Singularity Theory proved by J. Mather [9]. Based on the T. Nishimura's papers [12] and [11], the main goal of this report is to show that there exists a version of the Mather's result that is about the Cr-A-classification of Cr-stable map germs, 0 ≤ r ≤ ∞.

Le débat sur la traduction s’est articulé autour de la notion d’intraduisibilité ou l’impossibilité pratique de la traduction. Ainsi, cette thèse porte sur le transfert des éléments culturels en traduction juridique. L’enjeu étant de démontrer la possibilité pratique de la traduction des données culturelles malgré la distance entre les deux langues-cultures.Ainsi, faut-il souligner que dans le cadre de l’étude actuelle, nous avons abordé la question sous un angle proprement civilisationnel porté essentiellement sur les aspects culturels que recouvre le Code algérien de la famille.et que nous nous sommes limité aux cultures algérienne et française.Au coeur de cette problématique, nous avons mis au centre de notre réflexion la notion d’équivalence qui constitue l’essence même de toute opération de traduction. Avec les années, la question de l’équivalence ne se pose plus en termes de convergences ou divergences au niveau des structures d’une langue, mais elle est orientée davantage aujourd’hui vers l’aspect sociologique du phénomène traductif mettant en jeu des éléments extralinguistiques tout aussiimportants lors du transfert d’une langue à une autre. / The debate over the translation was structured around the notion of untranslatability or practical impossibility of translation. This thesis relates to the transfer of cultural elements in legal translation. The aim was to show the practical possibility of translation despite the cultural distance between two languages and cultures. Should it be stressed that within the framework of the current study, we tackled the question under an angle properly civilisationnel carried primarily about the cultural aspects which the Algerian family Code recovers, we limited ourselves to the cultures Algerian and French. This thesis focuses on the concept of equivalence which constitutes a central concept in any operation of translation.

No description available.

Educators and practicing professionals in many fields emphasize the importance of critical thinking for effective decision-making. However, critical thinking skills are not usually directly taught in traditional educational settings. A subset of these skills, identifying logical fallacies, could be amenable to direct instruction using procedures that establish conditional discriminations, such as equivalence-based instruction (EBI). EBI procedures have been shown to be effective and efficient when teaching a variety of skills, including the identification of logical fallacies, when compared with no-instruction and self-instruction control groups. The purpose of this study is to compare the effectiveness of web-based EBI procedures to a more traditional lecture-based instruction format, with and without requiring participants to actively respond to the material, for teaching undergraduate students to identify logical fallacies. Participants were assigned to one of three groups: equivalence-based instruction, lecture-based instruction or lecture-based instruction with active responding. Using a pretest-train-posttest design, performance on multiple-choice tests that target relations among logical fallacy names, descriptions, and examples were compared. The results of this study suggest that EBI is an effective instruction method for teaching college students to identify logical fallacies. When compared to both lecture-based instruction teaching methods, EBI resulted in consistently higher posttest scores following instruction and more consistent acquisition of the nonprogrammed relations (i.e., BA, CA, CB, BC).

Sidman's (2000) theory of stimulus equivalence states that all positive elements in a reinforcement contingency enter an equivalence class. The theory also states that if an element from an equivalence class conflicts with a programmed reinforcement contingency, the conflicting element will drop out of the equivalence class. Minster et al. (2006) found evidence suggesting that a conflicting element does not drop out of an equivalence class. In an effort to explain maintained accuracy on programmed reinforcement contingencies, the authors seem to suggest that participants will behave in accordance with a particular partitioning of the equivalence class which continues to include the conflicting element. This hypothesis seems to explain their data well, but their particular procedures are not a good test of the notion of "dropping out" due to the pre-establishment of equivalence classes before the conflicting member entered the class. The current experiment first developed unpartitioned equivalence classes and only later exposed participants to reinforcement contingencies that conflicted with pre-established equivalence classes. The results are consistent with the notion that a partition developed such that the conflicting element had dropped out of certain subclasses of the original equivalence class. The notion of a partitioning of an equivalence class seems to provide a fuller description of the phenomenon Sidman (1994, 2000) described as "dropping out" of an equivalence class.

The analysis of similarity of matrices over fields, as well as integral domains which are not fields, is a classical problem in Linear Algebra and has received considerable attention. A related problem is that of simultaneous similarity of matrices. Many interesting algebraic questions that arise in such problems are discussed by Shmuel Friedland[1]. A special case of this problem is that of Simultaneous Unitary Similarity of hermitian matrices, which we describe as follows: Given a collection of m ordered pairs of similar n×n hermitian matrices denoted by {(Hl,Dl)}ml=1, 1. determine if there exists a unitary matrix U such that UHl U∗ = Dl for all l, 2. and in the case where a U exists, find such a U, (where U∗is the transpose conjugate of U ).The problem is easy for m =1. The problem is challenging for m > 1.The problem stated above is the algorithmic version of the problem of classifying hermitian matrices upto unitary similarity. Any problem involving classification of matrices up to similarity is considered to be “wild”[2]. The difficulty in solving the problem of classifying matrices up to unitary similarity is a indicator of, the toughness of problems involving matrices in unitary spaces [3](pg, 44-46 ).Suppose in the statement of the problem we replace the collection {(Hl,Dl)}ml=1, by a collection of m ordered pairs of complex square matrices denoted by {(Al,Bl) ml=1, then we get the Simultaneous Unitary Similarity problem for square matrices. Suppose we consider k ordered pairs of complex rectangular m ×n matrices denoted by {(Yl,Zl)}kl=1, then the Simultaneous Unitary Equivalence problem for rectangular matrices is the problem of finding whether there exists a m×m unitary matrix U and a n×n unitary matrix V such that UYlV ∗= Zl for all l and in the case they exist find them. In this thesis we describe algorithms to solve these problems. The Simultaneous Unitary Similarity problem for square matrices is challenging for even a single pair (m = 1) if the matrices involved i,e A1,B1 are not normal. In an expository article, Shapiro[4]describes the methods available to solve this problem by arriving at a canonical form. That is A1 or B1 is used to arrive at a canonical form and the matrices are unitarily similar if and only if the other matrix also leads to the same canonical form. In this thesis, in the second chapter we propose an iterative algorithm to solve the Simultaneous Unitary Similarity problem for hermitian matrices. In each iteration we either get a step closer to “the simple case” or end up solving the problem. The simple case which we describe in detail in the first chapter corresponds to finding whether there exists a diagonal unitary matrix U such that UHlU∗= Dl for all l. Solving this case involves defining “paths” made up of non-zero entries of Hl (or Dl). We use these paths to define an equivalence relation that partitions L = {1,…n}. Using these paths we associate scalars with each Hl(i,j) and Dl(i,j)denoted by pr(Hl(i,j)) and pr(Dl(i,j)) (pr is used to indicate that these scalars are obtained by considering products of non-zero elements along the paths from i,j to their class representative). Suppose i (I Є L)belongs to the class[d(i)](d(i) Є L) we denote by uisol a modulus one scalar expressed in terms of ud(i) using the path from i to d( i). The free variable ud(i) can be chosen to be any modulus one scalar. Let U sol be a diagonal unitary matrix given by U sol = diag(u1 sol , u2 sol , unsol ). We show that a diagonal U such that U HlU∗ = Dl exists if and only if pr(Hl(i, j)) = pr(Dl(i, j))for all l, i, j and UsolHlUsol∗= Dl. Solving the simple case sets the trend for solving the general case. In the general case in an iteration we are looking for a unitary U such that U = blk −diag(U1,…, Ur) where each Ui is a pi ×p (i, j Є L = {1,… , r}) unitary matrix such that U HlU ∗= Dl. Our aim in each iteration is to get at least a step closer to the simple case. Based on pi we partition the rows and columns of Hl and Dl to obtain pi ×pj sub-matrices denoted by Flij in Hl and Glij in D1. The aim is to diagonalize either Flij∗Flij Flij∗ and a get a step closer to the simple case. If square sub-matrices are multiples of unitary and rectangular sub-matrices are zeros we say that the collection is in Non-reductive-form and in this case we cannot get a step closer to the simple case. In Non- reductive-form just as in the simple case we define a relation on L using paths made up of these non-zero (multiples of unitary) sub-matrices. We have a partition of L. Using these paths we associate with Flij and (G1ij ) matrices denoted by pr(F1ij) and pr(G1ij) respectively where pr(F1ij) and pr(G1ij) are multiples of unitary. If there exist pr(Flij) which are not multiples of identity then we diagonalize these matrices and move a step closer to the simple case and the given collection is said to be in Reduction-form. If not, the collection is in Solution-form. In Solution-form we identify a unitary matrix U sol = blk −diag(U1sol , U2 sol , …, Ur sol )where U isol is a pi ×pi unitary matrix that is expressed in terms of Ud(i) by using the path from i to[d(i)]( i Є [d(i)], d(i) Є L, Ud(i) is free). We show that there exists U such that U HlU∗ = Dl if and only if pr((Flij) = pr(G1ij) and U solHlU sol∗ = Dl. Thus in a maximum of n steps the algorithm solves the Simultaneous Unitary Similarity problem for hermitian matrices. In the second chapter we also relate the Simultaneous Unitary Similarity problem for hermitian matrices to the simultaneous closed system evolution problem for quantum states. In the third chapter we describe algorithms to solve the Unitary Similarity problem for square matrices (single ordered pair) and the Simultaneous Unitary Equivalence problem for rectangular matrices. These problems are related to the Simultaneous Unitary Similarity problem for hermitian matrices. The algorithms described in this chapter are similar in flow to the algorithm described in the second chapter. This shows that it is the fact that we are looking for unitary similarity that makes these forms possible. The hermitian (or normal)nature of the matrices is of secondary importance. Non-reductive-form is the same as in the hermitian case. The definition of the paths changes a little. But once the paths are defined and the set L is partitioned the definitions of Reduction-form and Solution-form are similar to their counterparts in the hermitian case. In the fourth chapter we analyze the worst case complexity of the proposed algorithms. The main computation in all these algorithms is that of diagonalizing normal matrices, partitioning L and calculating the products pr((Flij) = pr(G1ij). Finding the partition of L is like partitioning an undirected graph in the square case and partitioning a bi-graph in the rectangular case. Also, in this chapter we demonstrate the working of the proposed algorithms by running through the steps of the algorithms for three examples. In the fifth and the final chapter we show that finding if a given collection of ordered pairs of normal matrices is Simultaneously Similar is same as finding if the collection is Simultaneously Unitarily Similar. We also discuss why an algorithm to solve the Simultaneous Similarity problem, along the lines of the algorithms we have discussed in this thesis, may not exist. (For equations pl refer the pdf file)