Transfer of extinction of operant and eletrodermal elicited reponses in stimulus equivalence classes

• Grant number: 17/09728-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: October 01, 2017
• End date: September 30, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Experimental Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Júlio César Coelho de Rose
• Grantee: Heloisa Ribeiro Zapparoli
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Despite the fundamental importance of extinction processes for the experimental analysis of learning, minor attention has been observed in the behavioral literature in relation to these processes. This fact applies mainly in studies involving derived relational responses, in which few studies have been developed investigating extinction effects in the learning of indirectly learned responses (operants and respondents). In this project two different studies will be developed. The aim of Study I is to investigate the resistance to change in derived response rates in stimulus equivalence classes. To that end, six university students will be exposed to a procedure that, in the presence of three abstract stimuli (A1, A2 and A3), must respond to different variable interval schedules (VI 10, VI 100 and VI 100, respectively). These stimuli after this learning will be included in conditional discrimination training (AB and BC) aiming at the establishment of three stimulus equivalence classes. Transfers of evocative functions in accordance with the schedules taught directly in front of A for the C stimuli will be evaluated and the resistance to change of these responses for the C1, C3 and A2 stimuli will also be evaluated. This study will potentially allow to investigate the transfer of evocative functions and the resistance to the change of derived relational responses. In Study II, the objective will be to evaluate the transfer of respondent extinction and the effectiveness of different extinction procedures. To this end, ten undergraduate students will be exposed initially to a delayed pairing procedure in which abstract stimuli (A1 and A2) will precede the presentation of aversive sounds or gaining points. Like Study I, these stimuli will be presented later in conditional discrimination training (AB and AC) aiming formation of two classes of equivalent stimuli. It will be evaluated the transfer of eliciting functions of the stimuli of the set A to the stimuli of Set C with the use of the electrodermal activity measurement (EDA). Finally, the participants will be distributed in two different groups and a response extinguishing procedure will be conducted with the stimuli A (Group 1) or with the stimuli C (Group 2) and evaluated the transference of the extinction to these participants. This study will allow in-depth investigation of the transfer of respondent extinction from derived relational responses. (AU)