Levels Of Relational Complexity Research Articles

Relational integration predicted numerical inductive reasoning: ERP Evidence from the N400 and LNC.

As relational integration performance can be used to predict reasoning ability, the present study aimed to provide electrophysiological evidence for numerical inductive reasoning. Number series with two levels of relational complexity were utilized, including simple and hierarchical problems (such as "15-16-17" versus "15-16-18"). Two tasks were adopted: a relational integration task that required to determine whether the numerical relations were changed across numbers; a number series task that required to determine whether a hidden rule was acquired (Experiment 1) or to predict the subsequent number (Experiment 2), whose phases were divided as rule searching, rule discovery, and rule following. The event-related potential (ERP) results of both experiments indicated that, in contrast to simple problems, hierarchical problems triggered enhanced N400 and late negative component (LNC), reflecting numerical fact retrieval, and generalizing novel hypotheses about the hidden rules by integrating adjacent numerical relations, respectively; relational integration showed similar N400 and LNC activation patterns to rule discovery (Experiment 1) or rule searching (Experiment 2). Additionally, the N400 and LNC elicited by relational integration showed strong positive correlations and even were able to predict the ones triggered by rule discovery (Experiment 1) or rule searching (Experiment 2). Therefore, the results supported the role of relational integration in numerical inductive reasoning and thereby in intelligence.

La vicinanza solidale in contesti di vulnerabilità familiare. La partecipazione nella comunità come strada per ricostruire i tessuti sociali

Family vulnerability is a particular social situation, characterised by high levels of relational complexity, with serious consequences for the fulfilment of the developmental needs of a child. In the framework of the P.I.P.P.I. Programme (Programme of Intervention for the Prevention of Institutionalisation), social support is intended as a form of solidarity between families that aims to help a family through the support of another family, or individuals. In order to face vulnerability and social exclusion, P.I.P.P.I. promotes the mobilisation of these resources. The paper is therefore focused on a case study based in Sondrio (Italy), carried out within the P.I.P.P.I. Programme. The professionals together with the researchers tested their understanding, also promoting dialogue-meetings with families. These dialogical and interactive contexts generated new and unexpected interpretations of this phenomenon, framing it into an educational process that meets the needs of children and families, and promoting community participation as a way to reconstruct local social networks as well.

Navigating Increasing Levels of Relational Complexity: Perceptual, Analogical, and System Mappings.

Relational thinking involves comparing abstract relationships between mental representations that vary in complexity; however, this complexity is rarely made explicit during everyday comparisons. This study explored how people naturally navigate relational complexity and interference using a novel relational match-to-sample (RMTS) task with both minimal and relationally directed instruction to observe changes in performance across three levels of relational complexity: perceptual, analogy, and system mappings. Individual working memory and relational abilities were examined to understand RMTS performance and susceptibility to interfering relational structures. Trials were presented without practice across four blocks, and participants received feedback after each attempt to guide learning. Experiment 1 instructed participants to select the target that best matched the sample, whereas Experiment 2 additionally directed participants' attention to same and different relations. Participants in Experiment 2 demonstrated improved performance when solving analogical mappings, suggesting that directing attention to relational characteristics affected behavior. Higher performing participants-those with above-chance performance on the final block of system mappings-solved more analogical RMTS problems and had greater visuospatial working memory, abstraction, verbal analogy, and scene analogy scores compared to lower performers. Lower performers were less dynamic in their performance across blocks and demonstrated negative relationships between analogy and system mapping accuracy, suggesting increased interference between these relational structures. Participant performance on RMTS problems did not change monotonically with relational complexity, suggesting that increases in relational complexity places nonlinear demands on working memory. We argue that competing relational information causes additional interference, especially in individuals with lower executive function abilities.

Orangutans (Pongo abelii) make flexible decisions relative to reward quality and tool functionality in a multi-dimensional tool-use task.

Making economic decisions in a natural foraging situation that involves the use of tools may require an animal to consider more levels of relational complexity than merely deciding between an immediate and a delayed food option. We used the same method previously used with Goffin´s cockatoos to investigate the orangutans’ flexibility for making the most profitable decisions when confronted with five different settings that included one or two different apparatuses, two different tools and two food items (one more preferred than the other). We found that orangutans made profitable decisions relative to reward quality, when the task required the subjects to select a tool over an immediately accessible food reward. Furthermore, most subjects were sensitive to work-effort when the immediate and the delayed option (directly accessible by using a tool) led to the same outcome. Most subjects continued to make profitable decisions that required taking into account the tool functionality. In a final multidimensional task design in which subjects had to simultaneously focus on two apparatuses, two reward qualities and two different tools, the orangutans chose the functional tool to access the high quality reward.

Teaching perspective-taking skills to an adult with Down syndrome: A case study

Perspective-taking has for many years attracted considerable research attention in the mainstream cognitive developmental literature, under the rubric of Theory of Mind. Recently, the modern behavioral approach to human language and cognition known as Relational Frame Theory suggests that perspective-taking is a form of generalized operant responding involving deictic relations, such as I versus YOU, HERE versus THERE and NOW versus THEN, with different levels of relational complexity. People with intellectual disability often lack perspective-taking, and this deficit can detrimentally impact the quality of their social interactions. The current study is the first to train an adult with Down syndrome in deictic relational responding. The participant was exposed to multiple exemplars consisting of interactive tasks and feedback aimed at training reversed I-YOU, HERE-THERE and NOW-THEN deictic relations. The participant reached mastery on I-YOU, HERE-THERE and NOW-THENreversed tasks. In line with previous research in the area of deictic relations, more training trials on NOW-THEN relations was required for the participant to meet criterion than I-YOU or HERE-THERE relations. Implications for the use of training deictic relations with individuals diagnosed with Down syndrome are discussed.

Flexible decision-making relative to reward quality and tool functionality in Goffin cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana).

Decisions involving the use of tools may require an agent to consider more levels of relational complexity than merely deciding between an immediate and a delayed option. Using a new experimental approach featuring two different types of tools, two apparatuses as well as two different types of reward, we investigated the Goffin cockatoos’ ability to make flexible and profitable decisions within five different setups. Paralleling previous results in primates, most birds overcame immediate drives in favor of future gains; some did so even if tool use involved additional work effort. Furthermore, at the group level subjects maximized their profit by simultaneously considering both the quality of an immediate versus a delayed food reward (accessible with a tool) and the functionality of the available tool. As their performance levels remained stable across trials in all testing setups, this was unlikely the result of a learning effect. The Goffin cockatoos’ ability to focus on relevant information was constrained when all task components (both food qualities, both apparatuses and both tools) were presented at the same time.

Establishing deictic repertoires in autism

Derived relational responding is an increasingly researched topic in the behavioral sciences. Deictic frames, among other forms of relational responding, have been found to underlie complex behavior, including perspective-taking. Researchers have developed procedures for training children, with and without disabilities, to demonstrate relational responding. Recent extensions of these teaching procedures incorporated more naturalistic contexts as an avenue for establishing these repertoires, but the efficacy of these new procedures for children with disabilities and the degree to which these improvements generalize have not yet been explored. The purpose of this study was to determine if relational repertoires could be established using newer, more naturalistic teaching procedures in children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder and to what degree improvements would generalize to another adult. Results indicated that all participants met criteria for mastery on all levels of relational complexity. Additionally, all three children demonstrated generalization of these repertoires to a novel adult following training to mastery. The results suggest that an intervention approach utilizing a Barnes-Holmes protocol in a story reading context was effective for establishing deictic repertoires in children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder.

Análisis preliminar de un protocolo para la evaluación de marcos deícticos

<p style="text-align: justify;">El propósito de esta investigación es explorar diferencias en la ejecución de tareas deícticas presentadas en el protocolo de McHugh, Barnes-Holmes y Barnes-Holmes (2004a), en relación con variaciones procedimentales que consistieron en exponer a unos participantes al protocolo en un formato de entrevis- ta y a otros en una versión computarizada. La muestra estuvo conformada por 63 participantes entre 9 y 12 años, que fueron pareados por género, edad y nivel educativo, asignados a alguna de las condiciones de aplicación. Se calculó el número de errores cometido por cada participante y grupo de edad en cada marco deíctico y nivel de complejidad relacional, al igual que se estimó el efecto intersujetos mediante un ANOVA de dos vías con edad y versión (cara-a-cara y computador) como variables independientes y tipo de ensayo como variable dependiente. El efecto de la edad fue significativo para el caso de las relaciones invertidas ahora-antes y el de versión para las relaciones simples yo-tú y aquí-allá. En todos los grupos de edad se halló una tendencia a cometer mayor cantidad de errores en la versión computarizada en todos los tipos de ensayo. Los hallazgos se discuten en términos de confiabilidad del procedimiento y validez ecológica de las estrategias no automatizadas para la evaluación de relaciones de estímulo derivadas.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Palabras clave</strong>: Teoría de Marcos Relacionales, marcos deícticos, toma de perspectiva, procedimientos cara-a-cara, procedimientos automatizados.</p>

Relational processing following stroke

The research examined relational processing following stroke. Stroke patients (14 with frontal, 30 with non-frontal lesions) and 41 matched controls completed four relational processing tasks: sentence comprehension, Latin square matrix completion, modified Dimensional Change Card Sorting, and n-back. Each task included items at two or three levels of relational complexity. Relational processing was impaired in the stroke groups. This was due mainly to items at the intermediate ternary-relational level of complexity. Less complex binary-relational items and more complex quaternary-relational items (the latter are difficult for adults generally) were less sensitive to stroke status. Impairment was greater in frontal than non-frontal stroke patients. Positive inter-correlations among measures supported the domain-general nature of relational processing. Implications for assessment and intervention are discussed.