APA Citation
Watt, A., Keenan, M., Barnes, D., & Cairns, E. (1991). Social categorization and stimulus equivalence. The Psychological Record, 41(1), 33-50.
Publication Topic
RFT: Empirical
Publication Type
Article
Language
English
Keyword(s)
conditional discrimination, genarated equivalence
Abstract
The authors (researchers at the University of Ulster, Ireland) conducted research in which 23 participants, undergraduates and postgraduates, were taught a series of conditional discrimination. A generalization test was employed to allow for a preliminary investigation of the transfer of experimentally generated equivalence responding to untrained, socially loaded names. Findings suggest that prior social learning might interfere with equivalence responding.
Comments
This study examined whether social categorization could be explored in terms of stimulus equivalence by testing whether equivalence training could be transferred to untrained social stimuli. The study had Irish Protestants, Irish Catholics and English Protestants go through a series of matching-to-sample procedures in which they were trained to match Protestant or Catholic stimuli with non-sense syllables. The findings suggest that previous learning might interfere with equivalence responding in the experimental training.