Effect of the number of training trials on the event-related potential correlates of equivalence relations
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Effect of the number of training trials on the event-related potential correlates of equivalence relations Ryan Ríguel Barbosa do Espírito-Santo 1 & Gustavo Coelho Belleza Dias 1 & Renato Bortoloti 1 & Edson Massayuki Huziwara 1
# The Psychonomic Society, Inc. 2019
Abstract In the present study, we aimed to evaluate whether the number of training trials performed bythe participants during the baseline protocol in equivalence class experiments could modulatethe N400 evoked component. Two groups of 15 participants each followed a matching-tosampleprotocol to train on the conditional relations between four sets of abstract stimuli.Participants in the Extended Group performed approximately twice as many trials as those inthe Reduced Group. After having achieved the learning criteria in the equivalence tests,participants’ neural activity was recorded during semantic judgment tasks that includedstimulus pairs of both the same (related pairs) and different (unrelated pairs) classes. Ourfindings indicate that participants in the Extended Group had similar N400 components forrelated and unrelated stimulus pairs. Conversely, participants in the Reduced Group had morenegative waveforms for unrelated stimulus pairs compared to the ones for related stimuluspairs. We discuss the necessity of a more careful analysis of the choice of the number ofbaseline training trials in experiments on equivalence relations and N400 component, anddraw parallels between our findings and the N400 effect previously described for high and low frequency words in the participants' native language. Keywords equivalence relations . event-related potentials . N400 . number of trials . college students The stimulus equivalence paradigm (Sidman, 1994, 2000; Sidman & Tailby, 1982) is an experimental model that provides a behavioral analytic treatment for human symbolic behaviors. It empirically distinguishes between symbolic learning and paired-associate learning, in which different stimuli enter into a relationship but do not replace each other as often occurs in genuine symbolic relations. According to this experimental paradigm, the symbolic relations can be functionally regarded as equivalence relations, defined in mathematics by the properties of reflexivity, symmetry, and transitivity. If a set of stimuli is related through equivalence, (a) the relations between each pair of stimuli in the set are symmetric or bidirectional (if A is related to B, then B is related to A); (b) the relations between two pairs with one stimulus in common are transitive (if A is related to B and B is related to C, then * Edson Massayuki Huziwara [email protected] 1
Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas, Departamento de Psicologia, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psicologia: Cognição e Comportamento Humano, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Rua Flor de Esparódia, no. 51, apto. 203–Bloco 1, Bairro Ouro Preto, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais CEP: 31340 – 050, Brazil
A is related to C); and (c) the relation between two exemplars of the same stimulus is ref
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