EQUIVALENCE CLASSES AND FUNCTIONAL CLASSES VIA GO/NO-GO PROCEDURE WITH COMPOUND STIMULI

Abstract

The present study investigated if equivalence classes established with the go/no-go procedure with compound stimuli are also functional classes. This evaluation was conducted with four naive college students. During the first phase, each compound stimulus was presented successively at the computer screen for four seconds. Responses emitted in the presence of certain compound stimuli (A1B1, A2B2, B1C1 and B2C2) were reinforced; while responses emitted in the presence of others (A1B2, A2B1, B1C2 and B2C1) were not. In the next phase, different responses to stimulus A1 e A2 where trained. After accurate performances were established in training, BA, CB, AC and CA conditional relations were tested to verify the establishment of equivalence classes followed by simple discrimination tests with stimuli A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2 to verify the establishment of functional classes. Three of the four participants showed emergence of equivalence classes and formation of functional classes. The other participant did not show emergence of equivalence classes neither the formation of functional classes. These results indicate that the go/no-go procedure with compound stimuli can generate both equivalence and functional classes. Keywords: equivalence classes, functional classes, transfer of function, go/no-go procedure, adults.