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The Gradual Extinction of Transferred Avoidance Stimulus Functions

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Abstract

We investigated the transfer of conditioned avoidance functions through equivalence relations, and the extinction of these functions, facilitated by verbal prompts. Nine participants acquired three 4-member stimulus equivalence classes using a matching-to-sample procedure. One class stimulus was paired, by classical conditioning, with an aversive tone, which was used in avoidance training of a distinct response. There were two groups: A established the equivalence classes before avoidance training and vice versa for B. During some avoidance trials, each stimulus presentation was followed by the request for a verbal estimation of the probability of the tone. The last trials, run in extinction, included a verbal prompt to corroborate the provided estimation. One participant in each group received no verbal prompts. To negate the necessary reliance on instructions-governed performance, an additional participant completed the experiment with minimal instructions. All participants who had the equivalence training prior to the conditioning showed within-class transfer of avoidance functions, in contrast to the others. All prompted participants who demonstrated transfer showed gradual response extinction, but with a differential gradient. Responding decreased more sharply to the indirectly related stimuli than to the directly paired stimuli. The clinical implications are discussed.

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Notes

  1. The differences in the superscript notation between B as the stimulus acquiring the new stimulus properties directly, and D and A indirectly, is to illustrate the premise that despite the topographical similarities in the elicited responses, the “shared” stimulus properties will vary across some parameters. They are not considered identical; just as the properties of a conditioned stimulus (and response) are not identical to those of an unconditional stimulus (or reflex).

  2. By this, we do not mean that responses per se are derived. It is the avoidance discriminative stimulus property that is being derived. But for convenience, here we refer to the responses as a way of talking about them differentially. It is from observing these, after all, that we infer the derivation of such functional properties.

  3. In the conceptual elaborations –and methodological notes– surrounding reflexivity (e.g., Sidman and Tailby 1982 p. 6; Sidman 1994 p. 130, pp. 168-169, p. 319-320) there is no allusion to the available comparison stimuli as a relevant feature (the definitive feature being that the stimulus “exhibits the same conditional relational with respect to itself”, as long as it participated in the baseline conditional discriminations). Whilst it could be argued that utilizing novel stimuli as comparisons for reflexivity blocks can lead to selection by exclusion, such exclusion can also be made on the basis of the different histories of discriminative reinforcement for the stimuli used in the other relational blocks (besides, it is unknown whether the baseline “discriminate-able” contingencies could conflict with identity matching). Given some of these inconsistencies and multiple explanations around reflexivity (cf. Fields et al. 1993; Hayes 1991; Steele and Hayes 1991), we decided to explore such variables by modifying this methodological aspect. The respective data are not included in this paper.

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Author Note

Part of this research fulfilled a requirement for the first author’s MSc in Psychology at the University of East London. The computer software was developed by Tony Leadbetter, senior technical officer at the University. Correspondence and reprint requests should be addressed to Santiago Garcia Guerrero: santiago.garciadefilippis@gmail.com

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Correspondence to S. Garcia-Guerrero.

Appendix A

Appendix A

Table 6 Order of stimuli presentation during the different experimental trials for each participant. The “shadowed” characters correspond to class 3 stimuli that appeared interspersed with the others

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Garcia-Guerrero, S., Dickins, T.E. & Dickins, D.W. The Gradual Extinction of Transferred Avoidance Stimulus Functions. Psychol Rec 64, 581–599 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40732-014-0062-7

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