Abstract

AGGIO, Natalia Maria  and  DOMENICONI, Camilia. Formation and maintenance of equivalence classes: a study with elderly participants. Acta comport. [online]. 2012, vol.20, n.1, pp. 29-43. ISSN 0188-8145.

Many studies using procedures based on the paradigm of SE have been presented in the literature. The formation of equivalent stimulus classes can be facilitated by the Comparison-as-node structure of train and the "simple to complex" arrangement. Moreover, the size of the classes can influence the maintenance of the relations. Despite the diversity of populations studied with procedures derived from the paradigm of stimulus equivalence, there is still a lack of studies conducted with the elderly population. The aim of the present study was to investigate the formation and maintenance of equivalent classes of different sizes, besides the recovery of possible broken relationships over time. Participants were aged between 60 and 75 years. The procedure consisted of a training relationship of baseline and of a test emergent relations, using the matching-to-sample procedure with the simultaneous model, followed by a test of emerging relations, six weeks later, in order to verify the maintenance of classes formed. The procedure consisted of training and tests with three classes of stimuli composed of three or six stimulus (Condition 1 and Condition 2 respectively). Six weeks after equivalence tests, a maintenance test was conducted with the emerging and learned relations. Three participants showed immediate emergency and five exhibited delayed emergency. All participants showed the emergence of classes of equivalent stimulus. In the maintenance test, participants who were training in Condition 1 showed lower percentages than participants who were exposed to Condition 2. The comparison between two groups showed that the size of the class may be a relevant variable that can influence the maintenance of the class over time, since the participants exposed to the condition with larger classes had better results on the test of maintenance. Most participants from Condition 2 showed accuracy right at the beginning of the test, and therefore, it was not possible to evaluate the recovery of the relations throughout the test conducted six weeks later. This study presents data on the formation and maintenance of equivalence classes with the elderly population. Since there are few studies with this population, it is believed that these results make contributions both to increase knowledge about the generality of the phenomenon of formation of equivalence classes, and for the development of applied research that seek to develop behavioral technology in the educational area and maintenance of educational contents with this population.

Keywords : elderly; stimulus equivalence; formation of stimulus equivalence classes; maintenance of stimulus equivalence classes.

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