Abstract
Teaching arbitrary conditional discriminations and testing for derived relations may be essential for understanding changes in cognitive skills. Such conditional discrimination procedures are often used within stimulus equivalence research. For example, the participant is taught AB and BC relations and tested if emergent relations as BA, CB, AC and CA occur. The purpose of the current explorative experiment was to study stimulus equivalence class formation in older adults with electroencephalography (EEG) recordings as an additional measure. The EEG was used to learn about whether there was an indication of cognitive changes such as those observed in neurocognitive disorders (NCD). The present study included four participants who did conditional discrimination training and testing. The experimental design employed pre-class formation sorting and post-class formation sorting of the stimuli used in the experiment. EEG recordings were conducted before training, after training and after testing. The results showed that two participants formed equivalence classes, one participant failed in one of the three test relations, and one participant failed in two of the three test relations. This fourth participant also failed to sort the stimuli in accordance with the experimenter-defined stimulus equivalence classes during post-class formation sorting. The EEG indicated no cognitive decline in the first three participants but possible mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in the fourth participant. The results suggest that equivalence class formation may provide information about cognitive impairments such as those that are likely to occur in the early stages of NCD. The study recommends replications with broader samples.
Highlights
Behavior analysts have approached the study of complex human behavior by using conditional discrimination procedures while teaching potential ‘‘if. . .. . .’’ relations, followed by a test for additional untrained emergent relations (e.g., Sidman, 1994)
The results showed that event-related potentials (ERP) and the conditional discrimination training and testing correlated nicely
An analysis of correct responses during the first training blocks of the conditional discrimination training showed that the effect of the differential reinforcement was slower in P9580 compared to the other three participants (P9571, P9573 and P9578)
Summary
Behavior analysts have approached the study of complex human behavior by using conditional discrimination procedures while teaching potential ‘‘if. . .. . .’’ relations, followed by a test for additional untrained emergent relations (e.g., Sidman, 1994). . .’’ relations, followed by a test for additional untrained emergent relations (e.g., Sidman, 1994). Such procedures are often arranged in a matching-to-sample (MTS) format (Sidman and Tailby, 1982; Arntzen, 2006; Sidman, 2013). When establishing potential three 3-member classes (A→B→C), new relations could emerge during extinction conditions, that is, BA and CB (symmetry), AC (transitivity) and CA (equivalence; e.g., Sidman and Tailby, 1982). Studies have shown age differences in equivalence class formation (e.g., Saunders et al, 2005; Steingrimsdottir and Arntzen, 2014)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
