Relating relational networks: An initial experimental analysis.

Studying relating of relational networks is a complex and challenging task. The main objective of the present study was to demonstrate relating within and across relational networks based on same/opposite and bigger/smaller contextual cues and establish antecedent control. After nonarbitrary pretraining of the contextual cues, two nonsense stimulus classes were established based on comparative relations. Participants were trained to select stimuli from an array of options based on a symbolic rule that established a relation between two stimuli: one of Network 1 and one of Network 2. Training involved relating Network 1 to Network 2, and testing assessed relating Network 2 to Network 1. Seven of eight participants reached the mastery criterion in training and responded accordingly in test. In a final stage, reinforcing and punishing consequences were varied systematically in the presence of two novel stimuli and antecedent control was observed for all 7 participants. Experiment 2 replicated the results of Experiment 1 but using contextual cues taken from natural language, and Experiment 3 sought to understand the effects of pretraining relational responding using natural language. The mastery criteria were reached by four of seven participants in Experiment 2 and by all eight participants in Experiment 3. Future studies could develop and refine the methods employed here in analyzing the relating of relational networks, thus allowing for an increasingly sophisticated behavior-analytic account of human language and cognition.

Generalized contextual control based on nonarbitrary and arbitrary transfer of stimulus functions.

Two experiments with human adults investigated the extent to which the transfer of function in accordance with nonarbitrary versus arbitrary stimulus relations may be brought under contextual control. Experiment 1 comprised four phases. Phase 1 consisted of multiple-exemplar training to establish discriminative functions for solid, dashed, or dotted lines. Phase 2 trained and tested two equivalence classes, each containing a 3D picture, a solid, a dashed, and a dotted form. During Phase 3, a discriminative function was established for each 3D picture. Phase 4 presented the solid, dashed, and dotted stimuli in two different frames, black or gray. The black frame cued function transfer based on nonarbitrary stimulus relations (Frame Physical); the gray frame cued function transfer based on equivalence relations (Frame Arbitrary). Testing and training with the frames was continued until contextual control was established; subsequently contextual control was demonstrated with novel equivalence classes with stimuli composed of the same forms. Experiment 2 replicated and extended Experiment 1 by demonstrating that such contextual control generalized to novel equivalence classes comprising novel forms and responses. The potential implications of the findings for developing increasingly precise experimental analyses of clinically relevant phenomena are considered (e.g., defusion).

Equivalence relations and the contextual control of multiple derived stimulus functions.

Contextual control is a key aspect in equivalence research to support the claim that stimuli may have multiple functions or symbols may have multiple meanings. The present study investigated the contextual control of multiple derived stimulus functions in two experiments. In Experiment 1, equivalence classes were formed and one stimulus set from each class was used to establish two different functions: one via positive reinforcement (key-pressing) and another via negative reinforcement (button clicking), both under contextual control of two different background colors. Later, other stimuli from the equivalence class were presented on those background colors and contextual control of multiple derived stimulus functions was assessed. Experiment 2 added a third background in which no programmed response was reinforced, that is, responses were extinguished. Transfer-of-function tests revealed contextual control of three different functions, including derived extinction. Implications for equivalence relations as a behavior-analytical model of symbolic functioning are discussed.