The effect of pre-training of abstract stimuli to exert control over tact and mand responses on stimulus equivalence class formation.
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2020-10Metadata
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Antunes de Oliveira, Arntzen E. he effect of pre-training of abstract stimuli to exert control over tact and mand responses on stimulus equivalence class formation.. International Journal of Psychology and Psychological Therapy. 2020;20(3):259-272Abstract
Recent studies show that the formation of stimulus equivalence classes can be enhanced by meaningful
stimuli. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether acquired meaningfulness, through pretraining of meaningless stimuli to exert control over tact or mand responses, would enhance stimulus
equivalence class formation. Participants were eighteen university students aging 18-over 40 that
were alternately assigned to either the Tact (n= 9) or the Mand Group (n= 9). Participants in all
groups received a card sorting test following either a tact or mand pre-training. They then received
training and testing procedures to establish three 3-node 5-member equivalence classes under the
simultaneous protocol. After serialized training of AB, BC, CD, and DE relations, all probes used
to assess the emergence of symmetrical, transitive, and equivalence relations were presented for two
test blocks. Lastly, the card sorting procedure was repeated. Results showed that the pre-training
of abstract stimuli to exert control over tact and mand responses did not produce equivalence class
enhancement. Future studies should further investigate the relationship between the verbal properties
of meaningful stimuli and the formation of stimulus equivalence classes.