The effects of different abitrary MTS training parameters on N400 signatures evoked by members of distinct equivalence classes in comparison to the N400 evoked by words from the natural language

• Grant number: 17/06178-7
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): June 01, 2017
• Effective date (End): October 25, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Experimental Psychology
• Cooperation agreement: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal researcher: Marcelo Salvador Caetano
• Grantee: Marcelo Vitor da Silveira
• Home Institution: Centro de Matemática, Computação e Cognição (CMCC). Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC). Ministério da Educação (Brasil). Santo André , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 14/50909-8 - INCT 2014: Behavior, Cognition and Teaching (INCT-ECCE): relational learning and symbolic functioning, AP.TEM
• Associated scholarship(s): 19/14661-5 - The use of event-related potentials in studies of derived stimulus control, BE.EP.PD

Abstract

Recent experiments have observed that parings of arbitrary stimuli from different equivalence classes can evoke N400 effects similar than those that are commonly evoked by pairs or words from the natural language that are not semantically related. Albeit some differences on the N400 signatures for pairs of non-equivalent stimuli and for pairs of non-related words, these results have been regarded as evidences that equivalence relations established by matching to sample (MTS) procedures are analogous to the semantic relations that are formed by extraexperimental training. Likewise, such variations that can be related to different training stories, it is possible that N400 signatures can vary as a function of some MTS parameters. The present study aims at verifying the effects of different MTS training parameters (overtraining, Delayed MTS and Simultaneous MTS) on N400 signatures elicited by parings comprise by arbitrary stimuli from equivalence classes formed within each of these conditions. Experiment 1 will replicate the N400 effects evoked by pairs of non-related arbitrary stimuli with undergraduates that were reported by Bortoloti, Pimentel and de Rose (2014). For additional control and for a comparison of the N400 effects, EEG measures will be collected from pairings of words of participants' native language. Experiment 1's general procedures will be applied for Experiments 2 and 3. In Experiment 2 baseline conditional discriminations will be overtrained prior to the electrophysiological testing. Then, in Experiment 2, the EEG measures will be contrasted with EEG measures obtained in Experiment 1. By comparing the EEG measures, we will be able to observe whether the N400 signatures varies as a function of overtraining conditional discriminations. In Experiment 3 a group of naïve participants will be given to delayed MTS procedure (DMTS). Another group will be given to simultaneous MTS procedure (SMTS). Following the formation of equivalence relations, participants will be given to the electrophysiological testing and hence, by comparing the EEG measures from both groups, we will be able to verify whether DMTS and SMTS training changes N400 signatures. Results from these experiments can show that responses at the physiological level are sensitive to experimental variables. Moreover, EEG measures may provide extra external validity to the equivalence paradigm as a model of semantic relations that occur within all the natural languages. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

SILVEIRA, MARCELO V.; SILVESTRIN, MATEUS; VILELA, EDUARDO C.; DE ROSE, JULIO C.; ARNTZEN, ERIK; CAETANO, MARCELO S. Equivalence relations do exist before they are tested: Confirmatory evidence revealed by EEG measurements. JOURNAL OF THE EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR, v. 115, n. 1, SI, p. 284-295, JAN 2021. Web of Science Citations: 0.

DIAS, GUSTAVO C. B.; SILVEIRA, MARCELO V.; BORTOLOTI, RENATO; HUZIWARA, EDSON M. Electrophysiological analysis of stimulus variables in equivalence relations. JOURNAL OF THE EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR, v. 115, n. 1, SI DEC 2020. Web of Science Citations: 0.

CORTEZ, MARIELE DINIZ; DOS SANTOS, LETICIA; QUINTAL, ANA ELISA; SILVEIRA, V, MARCELO; DE ROSE, JULIO C. Learning a foreign language: Effects of tact and listener instruction on the emergence of bidirectional intraverbals. JOURNAL OF APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS, v. 53, n. 1, p. 484-492, JAN 2020. Web of Science Citations: 0.