Acquired relational equivalence: Implications for the nature of associative structures.

In 2 experiments, rats received discrimination training in which separate presentations of A and B signaled a common pair of relationships or associations (X?→?food and Y?→?no food), whereas presentations of C and D signaled a different pair of relationships (X?→?no food and Y?→?food). To assess the nature of the associative structures acquired during this training, rats then received 2 types of revaluation procedure: In Experiment 1, A was paired with shock and C was not. In Experiment 2, the relationships that A and B had previously signaled (X?→?food and Y?→?no food) were paired with shock, whereas those that C and D had signaled (Y?→?food and X?→?no food) were not. After both types of revaluation treatment, rats showed greater generalized conditioned suppression in the presence of B than D. These results indicate that A, B, C, and D come to evoke memories of the relationships or associations that they have signaled. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Acquired equivalence between cues trained with a common antecedent.

In Exp 1, rats experienced 2 stimuli (A and N) each preceded by the same event (food) or by different events (food preceded 1 but not the other). N was then paired with shock, and the generalization of conditioned suppression to A was assessed. Generalization was more marked when A and N had been experienced along with a common antecedent. In Exp 2, 3 stimuli (A, B, and N) were presented in initial training. For 1 group, A and N were preceded by food and B was not; for a 2nd group A alone was preceded by food. In each group, suppression generalized more readily from N to the stimulus that had received the same initial training as had been given to N. Exp 3 found that generalization was not enhanced between stimuli when 1 had preceded food in initial training and 1 had followed it. These results demonstrate that stimuli that have shared a common antecedent will come to be treated as equivalent. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Acquired equivalence and distinctiveness of cues.

In Experiments 1 and 2, rats received initial training in which two stimuli (A and N) were either followed by the same consequence (food) or by different consequences (food and no food). Subsequently N was paired with electric shock and the generalization of conditioned suppression to A was assessed. Suppression to A was more marked when A and N had both been followed by food than when they had had different outcomes. In Experiment 3, 3 stimuli (A, B, and N) were presented initially. For one group, A and N were paired with food and B was nonreinforced; for a second group, B was paired with food and A and N were nonreinforced. Generalization of suppression was found to be more substantial to A than to B for both groups. These results indicate that the extent to which stimuli are treated as being equivalent is partly determined by their reinforcement histories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Acquired equivalence learning with antecedent and consequent unconditioned stimuli.

The conditions under which cues with similar training histories are treated by rats as being equivalent were examined. A significant event, food, either preceded, followed, or preceded and followed each of the Stimuli A and B; Stimulus C was not food-associated. Next, B was counterconditioned with footshock until it suppressed an appetitively motivated behavior. When A and C were tested for generalized suppression, A (treated like B) evoked more suppression than C (treated differently than B). However, this equivalence effect was strong only when A and B predicted food and were treated alike. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Acquired equivalence and distinctiveness of cues: II. Neural manipulations and their implications.

Neural manipulations were used to examine the mechanisms that underlie the acquired equivalence and distinctiveness of cues in rats. Control rats and those with excitotoxic lesions of either the hippocampus (BPC) or entorhinal cortex (EC) acquired the following conditional discrimination: In Contexts A and B, Stimulus X --3- food and Stimulus Y --* no food, and in Contexts C and D, Y - food and X ---> no food. Rats then received many food pellets in A but not in C. After this treatment, control rats showed more magazine activity in B than in D-an acquired equivalence- distinctiveness effect. This effect was also evident in BPC rats but not in EC rats. These results indicate that changes in stimulus distinctiveness are dissociable from the process of conditional leaming. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Acquired equivalence and distinctivenes of cues: I. Exploring a neural network approach.

Rats were placed in 4 contexts (A, B, C, D) where they received 2 auditory stimuli (X, Y); in A and B presentations of X were paired with food and those of Y were not, and in C and D, Y was paired with food and X was not. Rats then received combinations of contexts that had provided congruent (AB, CD) or incongruent (AD, CB) information about X and Y's relationship to food. Responding was more variable during congruent than incongruent trials (Experiment 1) and was systematically increased and decreased during congruent (relative to incongruent) trials by the presentation of food or no food, respectively (Experiment 2). These results support a connectionist approach to acquired changes in stimulus distinctiveness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Acquired equivalence and distinctiveness in human discrimination learning: Evidence for associative mediation.

In the first stage of Experiments 1-3, subjects learned to associate different geometrical figures with colors or with verbal labels. Performance in Stage 2, in which the figures signaled which of 2 motor responses should be performed, was superior in subjects required to make the same response to figures that had shared the same Stage 1 associate. A third stage of testing showed that the events used as associates in Stage 1 were capable of evoking the motor response trained in Stage 2, an outcome predicted by an associative interpretation of such transfer effects. Experiment 4 provided evidence that the relevant associations can be effective in controlling motor responding even when subjects report an antagonistic relationship between the events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Acquired equivalence in human discrimination learning: The role of propositional knowledge.

The current study investigated the role of propositional knowledge in human acquired equivalence effects. Across 5 experiments, human adults were trained to associate different visual stimuli. Subsequent procedures presented training that was either consistent or inconsistent with the previous associations. More accurate responding in the consistent versus inconsistent condition reflected an acquired equivalence effect. The results of Experiment 1 indicated that a previously reported divergence between verbal and associative processes was likely due to instructional control. Experiments 2-5 further examined the role of verbal processes and demonstrated that acquired equivalence may be produced with verbal instructions alone and critically through a combination of instructions and actual stimulus pairings. The current data not only challenge a purely associative account but actively support an interaction between verbal and associative processes in producing the acquired equivalence effect in humans. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Acquired equivalence and distinctiveness in matching to sample by pigeons: Mediation by reinforcer-specific expectancies.

Assessed the ability of a reinforcer to mediate an association between 2 stimuli that independently predict the occurrence of that reinforcer (acquired equivalence of cues). In Exp I, 12 male White Carneaux pigeons were trained on shape (plus and circle) and color (red and green) matching-to-sample tasks. Correct responses were systematically reinforced with corn on some trials and wheat on others to establish associations between 1 stimulus from each task and a "common" outcome. Following training, Ss were transferred to a symbolic matching-to-sample task wherein a stimulus from one training task was presented as the sample, and the stimuli from the other training task were presented as comparisons. In the 1st session, experimental Ss made significantly more correct responses than controls (i.e., Ss "matched" stimuli previously associated with a common outcome). Exp II with 18 Ss replicated this acquired equivalence effect and controlled for food preference. Delayed matching-to-sample training demonstrated enhanced memory performance for Ss exposed to different reinforcement contingencies, but this effect was confined to the shape task. Results indicate that a reinforcer can serve as the basis for organizing otherwise unpaired predictive cues in memory and that animals will selectively use differential expectancies as cues for solving complex discrimination tasks, depending on the difficulty of the discrimination. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Within, outside, and in between: The relational unconscious.

This article explored the idea of a relational unconscious, which presumes three interconnected ideas about human interaction. First, meaning and understanding are coconstructed and intersubjective and not universal, absolute, and preformed. Second, there is a fluid boundary between conscious and unconscious experience that is intersubjectively mediated. Third, language is basic to human experience, whether or not a particular experience can be verbally expressed. This view of unconscious experience suggests that a therapist's participation is a major determining influence on the generation, awareness, and expression of a patient's unconscious experience. In applying a relational view of unconscious processes, self-disclosure is used to consider the usefulness of therapeutic interventions, to think critically about the nature of human interaction, and to specify how the therapeutic relationship promotes healing and growth. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Classical and relational psychoanalysis.

Comments on the articles by A. Wilson, J. F. Murray, A. Sugarman (see PA, Vol 82:33124, 33115, and 33122, respectively) and others regarding the controversy between classical and relational theories in psychoanalysis. Gill focuses on the opposition between classical and relational theory and suggests that the central issue in the controversy is the relation between the innate and the experiential. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The space between us: Stereotype threat and distance in interracial contexts.

Four studies investigate the role that stereotype threat plays in producing racial distancing behavior in an anticipated conversation paradigm. It was hypothesized that the threat of appearing racist may have the ironic effect of causing Whites to distance themselves from Black conversation partners. In Study 1, participants distanced themselves more from Black partners under conditions of threat, and this distance correlated with the activation of a "White racist" stereotype. In Study 2, it was demonstrated that Whites' interracial distancing behavior was not predicted by explicit or implicit prejudice. Study 3 provides evidence that conceiving of interracial interactions as opportunities to learn may attenuate the negative consequences of threat for Whites. Study 4 found that Whites have conscious access to their experience of stereotype threat and that this awareness may mediate the relationship between threat and distance. These results are discussed within a broader discourse of racial distancing and the possibility that certain identity threats may be as important as prejudice in determining the outcomes of interracial interactions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self- and relational observation.

Psychological mindedness and mindfulness are common themes across schools of psychotherapy. A somewhat smaller construct can be better defined: self- and relational observational capacity. This article defines and assesses strategies for 3 components of self- and relational observation: (a) awareness of feelings, ideas, and emotional control; (b) awareness of changing states of mind; and (c) awareness of self-concepts or schemas such as mental models of roles in a relationship. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Temporal contexts: Filling the gap between episodic memory and associative learning.

People can create temporal contexts, or episodes, and stimuli that belong to the same context can later be used to retrieve the memory of other events that occurred at the same time. This can occur in the absence of direct contingency and contiguity between the events, which poses a challenge to associative theories of learning and memory. Because this is a learning and memory problem, we propose an integrated approach. Theories of temporal contexts developed in the memory tradition provide interesting predictions that we test using the methods of associative learning to assess their generality and applicability to different settings and dependent variables. In 4 experiments, the integration of these 2 areas allows us to show that (a) participants spontaneously create temporal contexts in the absence of explicit instructions; (b) cues can be used to retrieve an old temporal context and the information associated with other cues that were trained in that context; and (c) the memory of a retrieved temporal context can be updated with information from the current situation that does not fit well with the retrieved memory, thereby helping participants to best adapt their behavior to the future changes of the environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Using significance tests to evaluate equivalence between two experimental groups.

Equivalency testing, a statistical method often used in biostatistics to determine the equivalence of 2 experimental drugs, is introduced to social scientists. Examples of equivalency testing are offered, and the usefulness of the method to the social scientist is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interobserver relational agreement.

Assessing interobserver agreement calls for measuring the degree to which numbers generated by one observer match those generated by another observer. However, for all scales of measurement save one, the absolute scale, using interobserver agreement as a measure of interobserver consistency is too strict because the observers might disagree only on empirically meaningless relationships. Two observers that are rating behaviors on an ordinal scale need only to generate orders that agree, not ratings that agree. This concept is formalized into a notion of relational agreement. Observers need to agree only on empirically meaningful (in a measurement theoretical sense) relationships. Those relationships that are empirically meaningful change as a function of the scale of measurement in use. A class of measures for measuring relational agreement (based on F. E. Zegers and J. M. F. ten Berge [see PA, Vol 72:24356]) is presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The internet and relational theory.

Comments on the article by R. Kraut et al (see record 1998-10886-001) regarding the relationship of internet usage and social relationships, loneliness, and depression. Silverman notes that Kraut et al directed criticism to studies that reported positive findings regarding Internet usage on the grounds that they were anecdotal rather than empirical. The author argues that anecdotal evidence is usually the first step in setting up hypotheses that have empirical merit, and provides anecdotal evidence from members of a training institute on relational psychology who continued their dialog on line. The author argues that the Internet has given participants in the group a voice and an outlet to be heard and validated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Testing model nesting and equivalence.

When using existing technology, it can be hard or impossible to determine whether two structural equation models that are being considered may be nested. There is also no routine technology for evaluating whether two very different structural models may be equivalent. A simple nesting and equivalence testing (NET) procedure is proposed that uses random sample and model-reproduced moment matrices to evaluate both model nesting and equivalence. The analysis is “local” rather than “global” in nature, but its use with simulation or bootstrapping can imply global conclusions. Two standard applications of NET are to verify whether or not two proposed models are equivalent and whether a baseline model used in an incremental fit index is appropriately nested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotions in collectivist and individualist contexts.

A theory of cultural differences in emotions was tested in a questionnaire study. Hypotheses about the differences between emotion in individualist and collectivist contexts covered different components of emotion: concerns and appraisals, action readiness, social sharing, and belief changes. The questionnaire focused on 6 types of events that were rated as similar in meaning across cultures. Participants were 86 Dutch individualist respondents and 171 Surinamese and Turkish collectivist respondents living in the Netherlands. As compared with emotions in individualist cultures, emotions in collectivist cultures (a) were more grounded in assessments of social worth and of shifts in relative social worth, (b) were to a large extent taken to reflect reality rather than the inner world of the individual, and (c) belonged to the self–other relationship rather than being confined to the subjectivity of the self. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)