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TRANSFER OF A CONDITIONAL ORDERING RESPONSE THROUGH CONDITIONAL EQUIVALENCE CLASSES
Author(s) -
Wulfert Edelgard,
Hayes Steven C.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
journal of the experimental analysis of behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1938-3711
pISSN - 0022-5002
DOI - 10.1901/jeab.1988.50-125
Subject(s) - equivalence (formal languages) , stimulus control , mathematics , conditional variance , conditional probability , equivalence relation , equivalence class (music) , psychology , natural language processing , computer science , theoretical computer science , artificial intelligence , cognitive psychology , statistics , discrete mathematics , econometrics , neuroscience , nicotine , autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity , volatility (finance)
Eight adult humans were taught conditional discriminations in a matching‐to‐sample format that led to the formation of two four‐member equivalence classes. When subjects were taught to select one comparison stimulus from each class in a set order, they then ordered all other members of the equivalence classes without explicit training. When the ordering response itself was brought under conditional control, conditional sequencing also transferred to all other members of the two equivalence classes. When the conditional discriminations in the matching‐to‐sample task were brought under higher order conditional control, the eight stimulus members were arranged into four conditional equivalence classes. Both ordering and conditional ordering transferred to all members of the four conditional equivalence classes; for some subjects this occurred without a typical test for equivalence. One hundred twenty untrained sequences emerged from eight trained sequences for all subjects. Transfer of functions through equivalence classes may contribute to a behavior‐analytic approach to semantics and generative grammar.