Abstract

HAYDU, Verônica Bender  and  CASTRO, Tatiane Carvalho. Effect of choosing the "none of the alternatives" option on equivalence classes resurgence. Temas psicol. [online]. 2013, vol.21, n.2, pp. 451-467. ISSN 1413-389X.  http://dx.doi.org/10.9788/TP2013.2-12.

The resurgence of equivalence classes has been demonstrated under a punishment contingency, but rarely under extinction. One explanation would be the extremely controlled experimental settings in which the participant is required to choose one of the comparison stimuli presented. The goals of this study were to investigate the effects of a response option corresponding to choosing none of the comparison stimuli ('no alternative') on the emergence of equivalence relations, and the effects of this option on the resurgence of equivalence classes under punishment or extinction. Two groups of six participants each were exposed to three phases of a matching-to-sample (MTS) procedure. In Phase 1 (Early-training), conditional relations were trained to establish four equivalence classes with four visual stimuli. In Phase 2 (Late-training), the contingencies were changed and these 16 stimuli were recombined to form four new equivalence classes. In Phase 3 (Resurgence), participants were exposed to MTS trials under extinction (Group 1) or punishment (Group 2) of the Late-training-consistent responses. During equivalence relations tests and the resurgence condition the "no alternative" option was presented. Both groups showed emergence of the equivalence classes in Phase1. In Phase 3, five of six participants in Group 1 showed no resurgence of Early-training-consistent responses, but in the case of participants in Group 2 this phenomenon was observed. The "no alternative" response was rarely emitted. It was concluded that the presence of this option did not affect the formation or the resurgence of equivalence classes.

Keywords : Resurgence; extinction; punishment; equivalence relations; reorganization of equivalence classes.

        · abstract in Portuguese | Spanish     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )