Treinos discriminativos específicos podem favorecer que um organismo responda consistentemente sob controle de relações entre estímulos que não foram diretamente ensinadas. Diz-se, então, que estas são relações emergentes. Caso tais relações estejam de acordo com as propriedades de reflexividade, simetria e transitividade, é constatada a formação de classes de estímulos equivalentes. Nas últimas décadas, diversos estudos vêm tentando demonstrar a formação de classes de estímulos equivalentes em animais não humanos, mas poucos têm tido sucesso. Dentre as propriedades definidoras da equivalência, a simetria tem sido a mais difícil de ser observada. Ao identificarem variáveis relacionadas aos resultados inconsistentes de estudos envolvendo testes de simetria, Frank e Wasserman (2005) planejaram um experimento com pombos, no qual tentativas de relações de identidade e arbitrárias eram apresentadas em uma mesma sessão, que resultou em desempenho positivo nos testes. O objetivo do presente trabalho foi identificar algumas das variáveis que possivelmente contribuíram para os resultados obtidos no referido estudo. Para tanto, foram realizados dois experimentos, com três pombos cada, para verificar: 1) a replicabilidade dos dados obtidos por Frank e Wasserman (2005); 2) se o treino de reversibilidade de combinações negativas é um fator importante na obtenção de simetria emergente com este procedimento. Os sujeitos foram ensinados a bicar estímulos apresentados isoladamente na tela de um computador em uma tarefa de matching sucessivo. O Experimento I consistiu no treino misto das relações AA, BB e AB e no teste de simetria BA. O Experimento II era semelhante ao anterior, exceto que, para que não ocorresse o treino de reversibilidade das combinações negativas, foram acrescentadas as relações CC no treino. Apenas dois pombos, um de cada experimento, apresentaram responder discriminado no treino. Ambos apresentaram desempenho semelhante ao do estudo de Frank e Wasserman (2005), o que indicaria emergência de simetria. Entretanto, uma análise mais detalhada do desempenho destes dois pombos revelou um responder instável entre as sessões de teste. Os outros quatro sujeitos não apresentaram responder discriminado apesar do elevado número de sessões (entre 65 e 220). A análise da distribuição das respostas ao longo do tempo de apresentação dos estímulos indicou diferenças entre o responder dos pombos que concluíram e que não concluíram o treino. Estes últimos apresentaram um responder marcado por longas pausas entre respostas, com menor freqüência de respostas para o estímulo modelo. Os pombos que concluíram a fase de treino apresentaram um responder constante, com poucas e curtas pausas, com maior freqüência de respostas diante do modelo do que diante dos estímulos de comparação. Os resultados dos testes de simetria indicam que o treino de reversão das combinações negativas não foi um fator relacionado à emergência de simetria com este procedimento. O fato de que a maioria dos sujeitos não aprendeu as relações treinadas, bem como os diferentes padrões de responder apresentados pelos sujeitos ao longo do treino e o desempenho instável nas sessões de teste, indicam a necessidade de refinamento do procedimento, buscando favorecer a aprendizagem e produzir estabilidade nos testes / Specific conditions in the discriminative training should set conditions for an organism to respond controlled by stimuli relations, not directly trained. These stimuli relations are said to be emergent. If these relations are reflexive, symmetric and transitive, than classes of equivalent stimuli were established. In the last decades, several studies tried to demonstrate the formation of equivalence classes in non-humans animals, but a few succeed. From among those properties that define equivalence relations, symmetry is the most hardly observed. Once identified some variables involved with the discrepant results in the symmetry tests, Frank and Wasserman (2005) designed an experiment with pigeons, where identity and arbitrary trials were presented altogether in the training sessions. This procedure resulted in positive outcomes in symmetry tests. The purpose in this study was to assess some of the variables that possibly contributed to Frank and Wassermans (2005) positive results. Two experiments were conducted in order to verify 1) Frank and Wasserman (2005) data replicability; 2) if training the negative combinations reversals is relevant in producing emergent symmetry by this procedure. Tree pigeons participated in each one of them. The pigeons were trained to peak stimuli presented alone in a computer screen in a successive matching task. Experiment I consisted in mixed training of AA, BB and AB relations followed by symmetry tests for BA relation. Experiment II was identical to the previous one, except that CC relations were added in order to avoid the negative relations reversal training. Only two pigeons, one of each experiment, reach training criterion. Their performances in symmetry tests were quite similar to those presented by Frank and Wasserman (2005) indicating that training resulted in symmetry relations. Meanwhile, a careful analysis of these symmetric performances in the testes revealed to be unstable from session to session. The four remaining pigeons did not reached training criterion despite of been exposed to high number of training sessions (about 65 to 220 sessions). Differences in distribution of responses over stimuli presentation interval were observed comparing data of the two pigeons that reached training criterion and pigeons that did not reach training criterion. Low frequency of response and long inter-response interval to the sample stimulus characterized the performances of the four pigeons whose training criterion has never been reached. For the pigeons whose training criterion was reached the responses occurred constantly, with few and short inter-responses intervals and high frequency of responding to the sample stimulus when compared to the comparison stimulus. The symmetry tests results suggests that training the negative combinations reversals did not affected the emergence of symmetric relations in this procedure. The fact that most of the pigeons did not reached training criterion, along with the different response patterns shown by each pigeon in the training task and the unstable performance observed in the tests indicates that procedure refining is needed in order to improve learning to criterion and produce stability during tests.

If an organism is explicitly taught an A->B association, then might it also spontaneously learn the symmetrical B->A association? There is only a small amount of evidence that attests to the detection of emergent symmetry in nonhuman animals (e.g., one chimpanzee and two pigeons). This report examines the necessary and sufficient conditions for finding emergent symmetry in pigeons while attempting to control for the problems of spatial and temporal location found in previous symmetry and stimulus equivalence experiments. Using a successive go/no go matching-to-sample procedure, which showed all of the training and testing stimuli in one location, four experimental manipulations were examined. In Experiment 1 temporal location was controlled without the inclusion of identity matching intermixed with arbitrary matching; Experiment 2 contained identity matching with stimuli different from arbitrary matching; in Experiment 3 identity matching was trained to criterion and then intermixed with arbitrary matching; and in Experiment 4 two sets of arbitrary matching were trained (e.g., AB and CD) but only one of those stimulus sets was trained in identity matching (e.g., AB). No evidence of emergent symmetry was found in Experiments 1 and 2. In Experiment 3, two pigeons showed moderate evidence of emergent symmetry, one pigeon showed suggestive evidence of emergent symmetry, and one pigeon did not show any evidence of emergent symmetry. In Experiment 4, two pigeons showed moderate evidence of emergent symmetry with the AB Stimulus Set (one of those pigeons also showed suggestive evidence of emergent symmetry with the CD Stimulus Set) and one pigeon did not show any evidence of emergent symmetry with either stimulus set. These data suggest that intermixing identity matching with the same stimuli used in arbitrary matching is a necessary, but not sufficient condition to obtaining emergent symmetry in pigeons.

Pesquisas apontam que o DMTS tem se mostrado mais eficaz no estabelecimento de classes de equivalência e maior grau de relacionamento entre estímulos de uma mesma classe do que o SMTS. Uma explicação possível para essas diferenças é que o aumento no intervalo de atraso entre a retirada do estímulo modelo e apresentação dos estímulos comparação em procedimentos de DMTS leva a uma maior exposição dos participantes ao estímulo modelo. Essa hipótese se alinha a resultados obtidos em experimentos que avaliam parâmetros de observação no estudo de discriminações condicionais, que demonstram que maiores durações de fixação do olhar sobre estímulos modelo estão associadas a maiores porcentagens de acerto no aprendizado em tarefas de MTS de identidade com modelos múltiplos. O presente estudo teve como objetivo avaliar os efeitos do emprego de atraso sobre a formação de classes e sobre parâmetros de fixação do olhar sobre os estímulos modelo em tarefas de MTS a partir do rastreamento dos olhos. Nove estudantes de graduação ou pós-graduação foram expostos a um treino de discriminações condicionais com estrutura OTM para estabelecer as classes A1B1C1, A2B2C2, A3B3C3 e A4B4C4. Cada uma dessas classes foi associada a uma condição de atraso durante o treino: simultânea, atrasos 0s, 2s e 4s respectivamente. Posteriormente, foram submetidos aos testes das relações emergentes de equivalência CB e BC, e simetria BA e CA em tentativas de DMTS com atraso 0s. Sete participantes atingiram o critério de aprendizagem durante o treino e conseguiram formar classes. Apesar de todos os participantes que atingiram os critérios terem aprendido primeiro relações de DMTS, não foram observados padrões ou diferenças significativas no aprendizado das discriminações condicionais ou formação de classes em nenhuma das condições. A análise dos parâmetros de observação também não revelou diferenças significativas entre frequência e duração de fixações do olhar sobre o modelo em nenhuma nas tentativas de SMTS ou DMTS com qualquer valor de atraso. Todavia, foi observado um efeito de prática, com valores maiores de duração de fixação nos blocos iniciais do treino. Esses resultados sugerem, portanto, que o maior tempo de exposição aos modelos não é suficiente para explicar as diferenças observadas no estabelecimento de classes de equivalência em tarefas de DMTS. Entretanto, alinham-se com a perspectiva de que um maior engajamento em comportamento de observação pode estar relacionado a um maior controle de estímulos dados os resultados do efeito de prática / Researches have indicated that the DMTS has been shown to be more effective in establishing equivalence classes and a higher degree of relationship between stimuli of the same class than SMTS. One possible explanation for these differences is that the increase in the delay interval between the withdrawal of the stimulus model and the presentation of the comparison stimuli in DMTS procedures leads to greater exposure of the participants to the stimulus model. This hypothesis aligns with results obtained in experiments that evaluate observation parameters in the study of conditional discriminations, which demonstrate that longer fixation durations on model stimuli are associated with higher percentages of learning success in multiple-models identity MTS tasks. The objective of the presente study was to evaluate the effects of the use of delay on the formation of classes and on parameters of fixation of the look on the model stimuli in MTS tasks from the eye tracking. Nine graduate or postgraduate students were exposed to conditional discrimination training with OTM structure to establish classes A1B1C1, A2B2C2, A3B3C3 and A4B4C4. Each of these classes was associated with a delay condition during training: simultaneous, delays 0s, 2s and 4s respectively. Subsequently, they were submitted to the tests of the emergent equivalence relations CB and BC, and symmetry BA and CA in attempts of DMTS with delay 0s. Seven participants reached the learning criterion during the training and were able to form classes. Although all participants who met the criteria first learned DMTS relationships, no significant patterns or differences in learning conditional discrimination or class formation were observed in any of the conditions. The analysis of the observation parameters also did not reveal significant differences between frequency and duration of fixations of the look on the model in any in the attempts of SMTS or DMTS in any with any value of delay. However, a practical effect was observed, with higher fixation duration values in the initial training blocks. These results suggest, therefore, that the greater time of exposure to the models is not enough to explain the differences observed in the establishment of equivalence classes in DMTS tasks. However, they are aligned with the view that greater engagement in observation behavior may be related to greater control of stimuli given the results of the effect of practice

Submitted by Aelson Maciera (aelsoncm@terra.com.br) on 2017-09-27T18:38:57Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DissSDCP.pdf: 2530109 bytes, checksum: 969acf4fbd844c709316d1eb4bc99426 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ronildo Prado (producaointelectual.bco@ufscar.br) on 2017-10-10T18:02:51Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissSDCP.pdf: 2530109 bytes, checksum: 969acf4fbd844c709316d1eb4bc99426 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ronildo Prado (producaointelectual.bco@ufscar.br) on 2017-10-10T18:03:00Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissSDCP.pdf: 2530109 bytes, checksum: 969acf4fbd844c709316d1eb4bc99426 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-10-10T18:11:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DissSDCP.pdf: 2530109 bytes, checksum: 969acf4fbd844c709316d1eb4bc99426 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-03-29 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / False memories can be defined as recollections that do not correspond to the facts experienced by subjects. Cognitive research have pointed out that the referred phenomenon is, to some extent, determined by semantic relations among stimuli. Based on these studies, behavior analysts have proposed experimental analogous of false memories using the stimulus equivalence paradigm to establish symbolic relations. The current master’s thesis was composed by one preliminary study and two main studies. The preliminary study aimed to assess the valence and arousal of pictures depicting facial expressions, and to select the meaningful stimuli that were employed on the class formation procedures of Studies 1 and 2. Study 1 aimed to analyze possible effects of emotional stimuli with different valences (positive, neutral and negative) on the occurrence of false memories. For this purpose, a systematic replication of Aggio’s (2014) Study 3, using lists of symbolically related stimuli through the stimulus equivalence paradigm was carried out. The main experimental manipulations of Study 1, in the present thesis, were the control of valence and arousal magnitudes attributed to the emotional stimuli; the use of emotional stimuli in the class formation procedure, which contained the unrelated distracting stimuli; and the randomization of list order presentation. Study 1 was structured in four phases, which encompassed 1) the establishment of six equivalence classes; 2) a false memories test with a memorization task and a recognition test, held one week after the beginning of Phase 1; 3) class merger and maintenance test, and 4) stimuli assessment through a semantic differential. Results showed that the false memories effect, under symbolic control, occurred only in relation to the positive stimuli list. It was hypothesized that the stability of the equivalence classes was an intervening variable. In order to verify the aforementioned hypothesis and search for new evidences regarding the effects of emotional valence on the establishment of false memories, a second study was proposed. The Study 2 had the same procedure as Study 1, with the exception of two changes: the reduction of the time interval employed between the first and the second phase, and the insertion of baseline review blocks of the six equivalence classes before the false memories test. These changes were adopted in order to increase the probability that the equivalence relations were stable and strengthened at the moment of the false memories test. Results showed the occurrence of the false memories effect in positive and neutral lists. These results suggest that stimuli with negative emotional valence can reduce the probability of false memories occurrence. / Falsas memórias podem ser definidas como lembranças não fidedignas aos fatos vivenciados pelos sujeitos. Pesquisas de base cognitivista têm apontado que o referido fenômeno é, em alguma medida, determinado por relações semânticas entre estímulos. A partir dessas evidências, analistas do comportamento propuseram análogos experimentais de falsas memórias com o emprego do paradigma da equivalência de estímulos como recurso para o estabelecimento de relações simbólicas. A presente dissertação foi composta por um estudo preliminar e por dois estudos principais. O estudo preliminar objetivou avaliar as propriedades de valência e alerta de imagens de expressões faciais, além de selecionar os estímulos significativos que seriam empregados na formação das classes de equivalência estabelecidas nos Estudos 1 e 2. O Estudo1 visou analisar os possíveis efeitos de estímulos emocionais com diferentes valências (positiva, neutra e negativa) sobre a ocorrência de falsas memórias. Para tanto, foi proposta uma replicação sistemática do Estudo 3 de Aggio (2014), o qual fez uso de listas de estímulos simbolicamente relacionados por meio do paradigma da equivalência de estímulos. As principais manipulações experimentais propostas, no Estudo 1, da presente dissertação, foram o controle das magnitudes das propriedades de valência e alerta atribuídas aos estímulos emocionais; a utilização de estímulos emocionais na formação das classes que continham os distratores não relacionados e o balanceamento das ordens de apresentação das listas. O Estudo 1 foi estruturado em quatro fases que envolveram: 1) estabelecimento de seis classes de equivalência; 2) teste de falsas memórias, compreendendo uma tarefa de memorização e um teste de reconhecimento, realizados uma semana após o início da Fase 1; 3) teste de fusão e de manutenção de classes e 4) avaliação de estímulos por meio de instrumento de diferencial semântico. Os resultados demonstraram que o efeito de falsas memórias, sob controle simbólico, ocorreu apenas na lista de estímulos de valência positiva. A estabilidade das classes de equivalência foi apontada como uma possível variável interveniente na determinação dos referidos resultados. A fim de verificar a hipótese supracitada e buscar novas evidências em relação aos efeitos da valência emocional, sobre o fenômeno das falsas memórias, foi proposto um segundo estudo. O Estudo 2 teve um procedimento idêntico ao adotado no Estudo 1, com exceção de duas modificações: a redução do intervalo de tempo empregado entre a primeira e a segunda fase e a inserção de blocos de revisão de relações de linha de base das seis classes de equivalência, antes da realização das tarefas de teste de falsas memórias. As alterações citadas foram adotadas a fim de aumentar a probabilidade de que as relações de equivalência estivessem estáveis e fortalecidas no momento de realização das tarefas de teste de falsas memórias. Os resultados indicaram a ocorrência do efeito de falsas memórias nas listas de valência positiva e neutra. Os referidos resultados sugerem que estímulos com valência emocional negativa podem reduzir a probabilidade de ocorrência de falsas memórias.

The present studies evaluated the effect of training structures on the development of equivalence classes in college students and individuals with intellectual disabilities. Experiment 1 evaluated the effects of two types of training structures, One-To-Many (OTM) (AB, AC, AD), and Many-To-One (MTO) (BA, CA, DA), on the establishment of equivalence classes in college students. A between group comparison was used in Experiment 1. Forty-two participants were randomly assigned to two different groups. Twenty-one were assigned to the OTM group and twenty-one to the MTO group. Participants in both groups were taught 3 four-member stimulus classes. Participants in both groups were exposed to conditional discrimination training, mixed training, symmetry and equivalence test. Response accuracy and response latency were measured in both groups. The results showed that the MTO training structure was slightly more effective in establishing equivalence classes in college students. In the Experiment 2, six young adults with intellectual disabilities were taught mathematical relations using the MTO training structure which was the most effective training structure in Experiment 1. All participants were taught three 3-member stimulus equivalence classes using the MTO training structure. The experimental sequence consisted of a generalization probe and pretest followed by conditional discrimination training, symmetry test, equivalence test, and posttest. Upon the completion of the training and testing phases a generalization probe was evaluated. Five participants demonstrated equivalence relations. The results show that the MTO training was superior to the OTM in the Experiment 1. Response latencies were faster in the MTO group during the training phases and slower in the testing conditions. Experiment 2 showed that only five participants demonstrated equivalence relations and transferred untaught relations to new setting. Results and implications are discussed in light of the research on equivalence and training structures in both adults and individual with intellectual disabilities.

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 present study evaluated the use of stimulus equivalence to train novel money relations with adults with developmental disabilities. Three programs from the PEAK Relational Training System: Equivalence Module (PEAK-E) were used: Reflexivity: Money, Symmetry: Money to Monetary Value and Equivalence: Monetary Exchange. The overall goal of the study was to evaluate how stimulus equivalence could help the subjects improve money skills, a socially significant behavior for all adults. The study used a multiple probe design across programs to evaluate skill acquisition following the train/test procedure for each program. Results demonstrated a significant increase in PEAK scores from baseline probes for two of the three programs for all subjects. Additionally, results showed that all subjects learned untrained skills. The results of this study demonstrated the value of stimulus equivalence for teaching money skills as well the efficacy of the PEAK-E training system to teach adults with developmental disabilities.

The following studies examined the effectiveness and the efficiency of individual and small group equivalence-based instruction on English and math relations with elementary school children. The first experiment implemented a multiple-probe design across three typically developing third graders using an automated procedure to evaluate the stimulus equivalence paradigm (SEP) on establishing English and math equivalence classes. Since some researchers have proposed that covert behavior facilitates in the formation of equivalence classes (Horne & Lowe, 1996; Stromer, Mackay, & Remington, 1996), the second experiment examined the possible role of covert behavior, more specifically, a visual imagining strategy, on correct responding after remedial instructional sessions. To further extend SEP into more academic environments, the third experiment used an observational learning procedure to evaluate the formation of English and math symmetry relations as well as the formation of equivalence classes in a small group format. The emergence of topography-based responding was also assessed after instruction for all three experiments.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of the procedures described in the PEAK-E curriculum in generating derived intraverbal categorization responses in both a vocal categorization context and written problem-solving context, replicated across three children with disabilities. Six four-member equivalence classes were taught, including three class member stimuli (A, B, and C) as well as one function class name (D), using a match-to-sample arrangement. These classes were divided into two stimulus sets (i.e., classes 1-3 and classes 4-6) and trained using pre-class (D-C training followed by mixed A-B/B-C training) and post-class formations (Mixed A-B/B-C training followed by D-C training). The procedures were efficacious in generating derived intraverbal categorization responses for one participant in a vocal context, and additional exemplar training was required for the emergence of vocal categorization responses in the other two participants. None of the participants were able to solve the written problem-solving tasks following training and testing of all target relations.

The PEAK Relational Training System's Direct Training Module was examined to determine age appropriate development norm ages in which to compare to persons with disabilities. Fifty-one typically developing children between ages of 2-18 were scored for the PEAK direct training assessment module by novel implementers (parents, caregivers) as well as professional educational teachers and administrators. Assessment implementation brought scores from fourteen different adult individuals and fifty-one different children's assessment forms for this study. The inter-rater reliability showed consistency of results with the relationship between Peak and age. Inter-rater agreement had a high degree of agreement through the same age, male or female, grade levels with student assessments on the PEAK rating pyramid. These subjective reports may be related and have one advantage that data results may be displayed conveniently in graphical form. The results suggest that there was no correlation between PEAK Total Scores and sex with R-Squared of .49, and produced a significant fit to the data (p < .001). Total PEAK by Age Group with an One Way Anova being: F(4,45) = 23.57, p < .001 suggest that the differences between ages in terms of PEAK total Score was significant.