Transfer of the Avoidance Function in Equivalence Classes Using Loss of Points as the Aversive Stimulus
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Transfer of the Avoidance Function in Equivalence Classes Using Loss of Points as the Aversive Stimulus Lucas Gandarela 1
&
Leandro S. Boldrin 2
&
Paula Debert 2
# Association for Behavior Analysis International 2020
Abstract The present study evaluated whether transfer of the avoidance response in equivalence classes is produced using the loss of points as the aversive stimulus. In the first phase of the experiment, 11 participants established two equivalence classes with four visual abstract stimuli each (Class 1: A1, B1, C1, D1; Class 2: A2, B2, C2, D2). In the second phase of the experiment, only one visual stimulus (B1) was paired with point loss. An avoidance response to B1 was then established. In the third phase of the experiment, the other stimuli were presented in a transfer of avoidance test. An avoidance response was established for all 11 participants, and the transfer of avoidance occurred for 10 of them. These results indicate that point loss can function as an effective aversive stimulus to maintain an avoidance response and produce transfer of the avoidance function in equivalence classes. The use of point loss may be a valuable tool in human operant research to substitute for other aversive stimuli with undesirable side effects. Keywords Equivalence . Transfer . Avoidance . Points
The matching-to-sample procedure establishes directly taught conditional relations and emergent conditional relations. Once symmetry, transitivity, and equivalence relations are detected, equivalence classes are assumed to be established (Sidman & Tailby, 1982). Functions that are acquired by one stimulus from an equivalence class can then be transferred1 to other
1 The term “transfer” was used due to its ubiquitous use in the literature (e.g., Barnes & Keenan, 1993; Barnes, Browne, Smeets, & Roche, 1995). Despite the ordinary use of the word “transfer,” no function is moved from one stimulus to the other; instead, the function is shared by the stimuli from the same equivalence class.
* Lucas Gandarela [email protected] Leandro S. Boldrin [email protected] Paula Debert [email protected] 1
Universidade de São Paulo (São Paulo, Brazil), Avenida Professor Mello Moraes 1721, Block F, São Paulo, SP CEP 05508-030, Brazil
2
Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia sobre Comportamento, Cognição e Ensino, Universidade de São Paulo, Avenida Professor Mello Moraes, 1721, Block F, São Paulo, SP CEP 05508-030, Brazil
stimuli in the same equivalence class (e.g., de Rose, McIlvane, Dube, Galpin, & Stoddard, 1988). The transfer of avoidance responses via equivalence class has been experimentally demonstrated in several studies (e.g., Augustson & Dougher, 1997; Markham, Dougher, & Augustson, 2002; Dymond et al., 2011; Gannon, Roche, Kanter, Forsyth, & Linehan, 2011; Luciano et al., 2013; Dymond, Schlund, Roche, & Whelan, 2014; GarciaGuerrero, Dickins, & Dickins, 2014; Boyle, Roche, Dymond, & Hermans, 2016). Augustson and Dougher (1997) were the first to demonstrate that avoidance respon
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