Abstract

DELGADO DELGADO, Diana Marcela  and  MEDINA ARBOLEDA, Iván Felipe. When Contiguity is not Enough: Blocking Equivalence Relations. Univ. Psychol. [online]. 2013, vol.12, n.2, pp.613-626. ISSN 1657-9267.

The blocking effect describes a circumstance which impedes function transfer among events that are part of a relation of spatiotemporal contiguity. However, theoretical and empirical evidence in stimulus class acquisition predicts that the blocking effect should not be observed even if some of the stimul11n the class are presented simultaneously as compound stimuli. The present study examines if additional A-EI training, whether prior or following training with a compound sample AX, constitutes a critical variable in the occurrence of the blocking effect. Performances in blocking tests by a group exposed to the blocking procedure, a group exposed to the backward blocking procedure and a control group were compared. Findings suggest that additional training with one member of the compound does not impede responding to all stimuli as members of the class. Instances where the blocking effect was observed are interpreted in terms of configural and elemental types of responding.

Keywords : Blocking Effect; Equivalence; Function Transfer; Respondent-Type; Compound Stimuli; Derived Relations; Matching To Sample; Elemental Responding; Configural Responding; Classical Conditioning; Learning Theory; Matching To Sample; Visual Attention.

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