The Formation of Linked Perceptual Classes

Fields, Lanny; Matneja, Priya; Varelas, Antonios; Belanich, James; Fitzer, Adrienne; Shamoun, Kim

doi:10.1901/jeab.2002.78-271

Cited by 21 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…A number of studies have identified training and testing parameters that broaden the range of variants that come to function as members of generalized equivalence classes. (Belanich & Fields, 2003;Fields et al, 1991Fields et al, , 2002Fields & Reeve, 2001;Galizio, Stewart, & Pilgrim, 2004). Perhaps the generalization problems reported by Cowley et al and Lynch and Cuvo could be overcome by the inclusion of the above-mentioned parameters in replications of their experiments.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Equivalence Class Formation: A Method for Teaching Statistical Interactions

Fields¹,

Travis

Roy

et al. 2009

J of App Behav Analysis

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Many students struggle with statistical concepts such as interaction. In an experimental group, participants took a paper-and-pencil test and then were given training to establish equivalent classes containing four different statistical interactions. All participants formed the equivalence classes and showed maintenance when probes contained novel negative exemplars. Thereafter, participants took a second paper-and-pencil test. Participants in the control group received two versions of the paper-and-pencil test without equivalence-based instruction. All participants in the experimental group showed increased paper-and-pencil test scores after forming the interaction-indicative equivalence classes. Class-indicative responding also generalized to novel exemplars and the novel question format used in the paper-and-pencil test. Test scores did not change with repetition for control group participants. Implications for behavioral diagnostics and teaching technology are discussed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Equivalence Class Formation: A Method for Teaching Statistical Interactions

Fields¹,

Travis

Roy

et al. 2009

J of App Behav Analysis

Self Cite

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“…The FR-based responses and corresponding ratio values were used in the present experiment because the results of prior experiments had shown that discriminations that used similarly defined responses were acquired with little training and were maintained with very high accuracy under extinction conditions (Belanich & Fields, 2003;Fields et al, 1995). Different keys of the computer keyboard were not used as the responses because they could be construed as comparison stimuli in a trial (Fields, Tittelbach, et al, 2007). Under those circumstances, instead of forming a simple discrimination between a class member and an operant, a subject would be selecting among comparison stimuli and forming a conditional discrimination between two stimuli.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nodal Structure and the Partitioning of Equivalence Classes

Fields

Watanabe-Rose

2008

J Exper Analysis Behavior

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By definition, all of the stimuli in an equivalence class have to be functionally interchangeable with each other. The present experiment, however, demonstrated that this was not the case when using post-class-formation dual-option response transfer tests. With college students, two 4-node 6-member equivalence classes with nodal structures of A-->B-->C-->D-->E-->F were produced by training AB, BC, CD, DE, and EF. Then, unique responses were trained to the C and D stimuli in each class. The responses trained to C generalized to B and A, while the responses trained to D generalized to E and F. Thus, each 4-node 6-member equivalence class was bifurcated into two 3-member functional classes: A-->B-->C and D-->E-->F, with class membership precisely predicted by nodal structure. A final emergent relations test documented the intactness of the underlying 4-node 6-member equivalence classes. The coexistence of the interchangeability of stimuli in an equivalence class and the bifurcation of such a class in terms of nodal structure was explained in the following manner. The conditional discriminations that are used to establish a class also imposes a nodal structure on the stimuli in the class. Thus, the stimuli in the class acquire two sets of relational properties. If the format of a test trial allows only one response option per class, responding on those trials will be in accordance with class membership and will not express the effects of nodal distance. If the format of a test trial allows more than one response option per class, responding on those trials will be determined by the nodal structure of the class. Thus, the relational properties expressed by the stimuli in an equivalence class are determined by the discriminative function served by the format of a test trial.

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“…As the value of the anchor stimulus in each class was arbitrarily set to zero, the width of each class was indexed by the value of the boundary stimulus for that class. Previous research had shown that the value of the boundary stimulus in a perceptual class can vary as a function of whether it is used as a sample or as a comparison (Fields et al, 2002a;Fields et al, 2002b;Fields et al, 2005). In Phase 3, the values of the boundary stimuli when used as samples were determined using variant-to-base generalization tests, and the values of the boundary stimuli when used as comparisons were determined using base-to-variant generalization tests.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Formation of Partially and Fully Elaborated Generalized Equivalence Classes

Fields

Moss

2008

J Exper Analysis Behavior

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Most complex categories observed in real-world settings consist of perceptually disparate stimuli, such as a picture of a person's face, the person's name as written, and the same name as heard, as well as dimensional variants of some or all of these stimuli. The stimuli function as members of a single partially or fully elaborated generalized equivalence class when they occasion the mutual selection of each other after the establishment of some subset of relations among the stimuli. Indeed, it is these generalized relations among stimuli that enable an individual to respond appropriately to the inevitable flux of natural environments. The present experiments involved procedures for producing both types of generalized equivalence class and for evaluating their retention. Granting the formal and functional similarities that exist between generalized equivalence classes and natural categories, natural kinds, and fuzzy superordinate classes, the variables responsible for the emergence of the former might also account for the emergence of the latter three phenomena. In Experiment 1, After forming an A'-B' class, a B'-C relation was trained and generalization tests were conducted with B'-C, C-B', A'-C, and C'-A. Two of 5 participants passed the tests documenting the formation of A'-B'-C classes. Failures occurred in the A'-C and C-A' tests but not the B'-C and C-B' tests. Failures were also correlated with time between A'-B' class formation and C-based testing and with the absence of baseline confirmation when training and testing were separated by about one week. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1 but presented baseline confirmation probes immediatley prior to testing when training and testing were separated by one week; all participants then formed partially elaborated generalized equivalence classes. In Experiment 3, 5 of 6 participants formed fully elaborated generalized equivalence classes, represented as A' = B' = C'.

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The Formation of Linked Perceptual Classes

Cited by 21 publications

References 44 publications

Equivalence Class Formation: A Method for Teaching Statistical Interactions

Equivalence Class Formation: A Method for Teaching Statistical Interactions

Nodal Structure and the Partitioning of Equivalence Classes

Formation of Partially and Fully Elaborated Generalized Equivalence Classes

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