BibTeX
@MISC{Garcia_equivalenceclasses,
author = {Yors A. Garcia and Ruth Anne Rehfeldt},
title = {Equivalence Classes},
year = {}
}
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Abstract
Considerable efforts in recent years have been dedicated towards the specification of the conditions under which organisms learn to behave symbolically with two or more stimuli. Environmental stimuli are said to be “symbolic” for one another when they are shown to be equivalent; in other words, the stimuli function interchangeably for one another in the absence of a history of direct conditioning (Sidman & Tailby, 1982). The research program on stimulus equivalence has repeatedly shown that when research participants experience a series of reinforced conditional discriminations, the stimuli are ultimately shown to be related to one another in indirect and often surprising ways. For example, if reinforcement is provided contingent upon the selection of stimulus B1 in the presence of stimulus A1 and for the selection of stimulus C1 in the presence of stimulus B1, most participants, even those with only rudi-mentary verbal repertoires, will subsequently demonstrate the emergence of novel, untrained relations in the absence of direct conditioning: They will now select stimulus A1 given B1 and C1, stimulus C1 given B1, and stimulus B1 giv-en C1. Upon this finding, the stimuli are said to have entered into an equivalence class (Sidman, 1994), and are thus symbolically related to one another. It is worth noting that symbolic be-havior refers only to the bidirectional nature of human verbal behavior. Verbally-able humans respond to one event in terms of the other: The Yors A. Garcia is a doctoral student in the Rehabilitation
Keyphrases
equivalence class stimulus a1 stimulus b1 direct conditioning stimulus c1 doctoral student considerable effort verbally-able human research participant stimulus equivalence untrained relation rudi-mentary verbal repertoire research program bidirectional nature environmental stimulus stimulus b1 giv-en c1 human verbal behavior stimulus function surprising way reinforced conditional discrimination recent year symbolic be-havior refers sidman tailby
