Transfer of Function through Equivalence Relations using Pictures with Strong Emotional Content

Abstract

To simulate the emotional judging function seen in some clinical problems, matching-to-sample training was used to establish three-member stimulus equivalence classes consisting of abstract paintings. Pictures with strongly positive or negative emotional content were then paired with only one of the paintings in each class, and transfer of the judgement function to the other stimuli in the equivalence class was tested. A single-case, multi-element pretest-posttest design was used with 10 participants in each of two experiments. Stimulus equivalence emerged in all participants, with 95%-100% correct responses. However, transfer of the judgement rating function appeared consistently in only three participants in Experiment 1. In Experiment 2, transfer test trials were done only in the posttest phase to obviate the effects of pre-experimental history, preference or memory, but only two participants consistently showed transfer. We conclude that the experimental method we used controls for procedural variables that might account for the between-participant and within-stimulus variability usually found in earlier transfer experiments. In contrast to the appearance of stimulus equivalence, the emergence of transfer of function did not appear to be an automatic process.