Abstract

HERNANDEZ, ALDO; MEDINA, IVÁN FELIPE  and  ALEEN ERAZO, LEYDY. RESURGENCE OF SYMBOLIC BEHAVIOR: AN EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH. Act.Colom.Psicol. [online]. 2008, vol.11, n.2, pp.141-151. ISSN 0123-9155.

The purpose of this study was to assess the differential effects of consequence change (from reinforcement to punishment contingencies) upon conditional discrimination learning and derived stimulus relations. Seven participants were taught to discriminate four pair-sets of stimuli by means of a matching to sample procedure (early training) and were tested for derived stimulus relations. Later the pair-sets were reorganized in order to establish the new conditional discriminative functions between stimuli (later training, inconsistent with respect to early training). Novel responses were tested as well. Relational responses consistent with the later training received punishment in the following phase. Finally, the conditional discriminative functions (both the one directly trained and the derived one) were tested. A high number of participants showed the resurgence phenomenon, a behavioral pattern consistent with early training both of directly trained and derived stimulus relations. These results can support the idea that resurgence of behavior is a common alteration of contingency-shaped behavioral topographies and novel behavior.

Keywords : derived relational responding; resurgence; equivalence relations; humans.

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