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Equivalent Stimuli are more Strongly Related after Training With Delayed Matching Than after Simultaneous Matching: A Study Using the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP)

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Abstract

Bortoloti and de Rose (2009) found evidence that the level of functional transfer is higher in equivalence classes generated by delayed matching to sample (DMTS) than in classes generated by simultaneous matching (SMTS). We attempted to replicate these findings with the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP). Two experimental groups established two equivalence classes, each comprised of faces expressing either anger or happiness and nonsense words. The classes were established with SMTS for one group and with DMTS for the other. Then, nonsense words and the faces were respectively presented as “attribute” and target stimuli in IRAP tasks. The DMTS group yielded the expected IRAP effect; the SMTS group yielded an IRAP effect only when the target was a happy face. It is discussed that DMTS can enhance transfer of “semantic” functions between equivalent stimuli, supporting the idea that the relatedness of stimuli can vary as a function of experimental parameters.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Psicologia, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Caixa Postal 676, São Carlos, SP, Brazil, 13565-905

    Renato Bortoloti

  2. Instituto Nacional de Ciŋcia e Tecnologia sobre Comportamento, Cognição e Ensino, Brazil

    Julio C. de Rose

Authors
  1. Renato Bortoloti
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  2. Julio C. de Rose
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Renato Bortoloti.

Additional information

This research was supported by the National Research Council (CNPq, Grant 573972/2008-7) and the State of São Paulo Foundation for Research Support (FAPESP, Grant 08/57705-8). The project was supported also by CNPq, Grant 400576/2010-4, to Renato Bortoloti. The first author was supported by a postdoctoral grant from FAPESP, and the second author was supported by a research productivity grant from CNPq.

We thank Deisy de Souza for her contributions and support for the research and Dermot Barnes-Holmes for thoughtful suggestions for the final version of the manuscript.

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Bortoloti, R., de Rose, J.C. Equivalent Stimuli are more Strongly Related after Training With Delayed Matching Than after Simultaneous Matching: A Study Using the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP). Psychol Rec 62, 41–54 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03395785

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