Rodriguez Valverde, M., Luciano, C. & Barnes-Holmes, D. (2009).
Transfer of aversive respondent elicitation in accordance with equivalence relations.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 92, 85-111.
The present study investigates the transfer of aversively conditioned
respondent elicitation through equivalence classes, using skin conductance
as the measure of conditioning. The first experiment is an attempt to
replicate Experiment 1 in Dougher, Augustson, Markham, Greenway, and
Wulfert ( 1994 ), with different temporal parameters in the
aversive conditioning procedure employed. Match-to-sample procedures
were used to teach 17 participants two 4-member equivalence
classes. Then, one member of one class was paired with electric
shock and one member of the other class was presented without shock.
The remaining stimuli from each class were presented in transfer
tests. Unlike the findings in the original study, transfer of
conditioning was not achieved. In Experiment 2, similar procedures
were used with 30 participants, although several modifications
were introduced ( formation of five-member classes, direct
conditioning with several elements of each class, random
sequences of stimulus presentation in transfer tests, reversal
in aversive conditioning contingencies ). More than 80%
of participants who had shown differential conditioning also
showed the transfer of function effect. Moreover, this effect
was replicated within subjects for 3 participants. This is the
first demonstration of the transfer of aversive respondent
elicitation through stimulus equivalence classes with the
presentation of transfer test trials in random order. The
latter prevents the possibility that transfer effects are an
artefact of transfer test presentation order.
Key words: transfer and transformation of function, aversive conditioning,
derived stimulus relations, stimulus equivalence, fear, skin conductance, humans