A theory of stimulus equivalence.

Capehart, Jack; Tempone, Vincent J.; Herbert, John

doi:10.1037/h0027418

Cited by 33 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Therefore, Ratio 2 must also be an inappropriate predictor, thereby questioning the utility of either variant of Riley's (1958) ratio theory for our data. Another relational account, adaptation level theory (Capehart, Tempone, & Hebert, 1969;James, 1953), hypothesizes that discrimination training leads to the establishment of an adaptation level, which represents the cumulative effect of all of the stimuli that have been given to the organism. Conventionally, the adaptation level is set at the geometric mean of the training values.…”

Section: Can Relational Theories Explain Our Data?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Transposition in pigeons: reassessing spence (1937) with multiple discrimination training

Lazareva

Wasserman

Young

2005

Learning & Behavior

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We studied transposition in pigeons, using multiple-pair discrimination training. Four birds discriminated two pairs of circles: 1+ 2- and 5+ 6- or 1 - 2 + and 5- 6 + (digits denote circle diameters and plus and minus signs denote reward and nonreward, respectively). Four other birds discriminated four pairs of circles: 1+ 2-, 1+ 3-, 4+ 6-, and 5+ 6- or 1- 2 +, 1- 3 +, 4- 6+, and 5- 6+. Finally, 4 birds discriminated only one pair of circles: 1+ 2-, 1- 2+, 5+ 6-, or 5- 6+. Testing included five new pairs--1/5, 2/3,2/6,3/4, and 4/5--that distinguished absolute from relational accounts of transposition. The pigeons' relational responding rose from one- to two- to four-pair training. The similarity of the testing stimuli to one another also affected relational responding: Transposition increased with highly dissimilar stimuli. Neither Spence's (1937) theory nor existing relational accounts could predict the obtained pattern of relational responding.

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Section: Can Relational Theories Explain Our Data?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Transposition in pigeons: reassessing spence (1937) with multiple discrimination training

Lazareva

Wasserman

Young

2005

Learning & Behavior

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“…According to this theory, all relevant stimuli that are presented within an experimental session establish a frame of reference that is used for later judgments [14,15,16]. This frame of reference is the adaptation level, and several models for its quantification had been proposed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal Expectations Affect Retrospective Temporal Judgments: Evidence in Favour of Assimilation Effects

Klapproth¹

2013

PBS

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Abstract:A study containing four experiments provided evidence in favour of assimilation effects in retrospective duration judgments due to temporal expectations. In this study, the participants did not know in advance that they would have to reproduce the duration of a target interval. Temporal expectations were induced prior to the target interval by the repeated presentation of a visually filled interval (the expectancy interval). Both the duration of the expectancy interval and the number of presentations of that interval were varied between subjects. The experiments showed a clear assimilation effect of temporal expectations on reproduced duration, indicated by judged durations strongly resembling the duration of the expectancy interval. This effect increased with the magnitude of the difference between the expectancy interval and the target interval, and with the number of repetitions of the expectancy interval. Results were discussed with reference to Helson's adaptation-level theory.

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“…In order to account for the occurrence of a peak shift after discrimination training, Thomas, Svinicki, and Vogt (1973) extended a proposal by Capehart et al (1969) and James (1953). Thomas et al (1973) state their hypothesis as follows: "Suppose that a subject is trained to respond to a 200 gm.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…For the other groups, the peak was shifted toward the center of the test series. Capehart, Tempone, and Hebert (1969) proposed that this "central tendency effect" was explicable in terms of Helson's (1947Helson's ( , 1964 adaptation level (AL) theory. According to this theory, subjects perceive and remember stimuli not as absolute values but in relation to some internal representation of the "average" of previous experience with that dimension, called adaptation level.'…”

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confidence: 99%

Two determinants of the peak shift in human voluntary stimulus generalization

Newlin

Rodgers

Thomas

1979

Perception & Psychophysics

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Two hundred and forty college students were divided into two groups, with training stimuli (from the brightness dimension) selected to produce small and large adaptation level shifts between discrimination training (to respond "same" to S+ and "different" to S-)and generalization testing. These were further divided into three groups with discriminations expected to yield positive (toward brighter values), negative (toward dimmer values), or zero postdiscrimination peak shifts. Half the subjects received brief discrimination training while half received extended training. A further group of 60 subjects were given exposure to the stimuli comparable to that of the extended training subjects, but were asked to rate the stimuli instead of being given discrimination training. The results indicated that two independent, additive sources of shift were active. One source, occurring in all groups, was interpreted as being due to the change in adaptation level from training to test. The other source of shift, occurring only in the groups with extended discrimination training, was interpreted as due to the establishment of asymmetrical decision criteria; the more traditional interpretation in terms of the interaction between excitatory and inhibitory gradients of response strength was also considered. 478One of the most robust findings in the study of discrimination learning is that of the peak shift in postdiscrimination stimulus generalization. Following acquisition of a successive discrimination between two stimulus values closely spaced on the same continuum, the peak (i.e., the point of maximal responding) is displaced from the S + to a value farther removed from the S -. This peak shift has been observed in several infrahuman species, as well as in children and adult humans, along several different stimulus dimensions, including wavelength, brightness, and line angle (cf. Purtle, 1973). The peak shift, at least in animals, has been most commonly interpreted in terms of Spence's (1937) theory, according to which response strength to any stimulus is a consequence of the summation of generalized excitatory strength from S + and inhibitory strength from S -.A more recent interpretation of generalization gradients involves the application of statistical decision theory (Boneau & Cole, 1967). According to this approach, any given physical stimulus produces a subjective experience (within the organism) called a discriminal process. Because the discriminal process is variable, repeated presentations of the same physical stimulus generate a discriminal distribution. The subject must then establish a criterion (or criteria) which defines a range of the discriminal distribution that the subject will attribute to a particular stimulus. Blough (1969) has shown that peaked generalization gradients would be found if instructions (for human subjects) or single-stimulus training (for animal subjects) caused them to create two symmetrical response criteria around the mean discriminal process produced by the training stimulus. Blough al...

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A theory of stimulus equivalence.

Cited by 33 publications

References 34 publications

Transposition in pigeons: reassessing spence (1937) with multiple discrimination training

Transposition in pigeons: reassessing spence (1937) with multiple discrimination training

Temporal Expectations Affect Retrospective Temporal Judgments: Evidence in Favour of Assimilation Effects

Two determinants of the peak shift in human voluntary stimulus generalization

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