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Child sex abuse has become an increasingly well-researched phenomenon. Issues addressed include preconditions of abuse, short-term and long-term effects on the child, therapeutic interventions to help overcome the effects of abuse, and treatment of perpetrators. However, lack of reliable and nonintrusive detection and disclosure technique...
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... In Experiment 3, there was a further decrease in the variability of responding across participants; for the most part, there was no responding at all at ' A2', 'B2', and 'C2' . Interestingly, the issue of variability raised in these studies may be related to findings in previous studies which examined the effects of prior history (e.g., Moxon et al., 1993;McGlinchey et al., 2000;Watt et al., 1991). Although these studies did not examine functional equivalence classes per se, they demonstrated that variability in equivalence responding was significantly influenced by prior social history. ...
Revista Mexicana de Análisis de la Conducta • Mexican Journal of Behavior Analysis
Three experiments using undergraduate participants examined the emergence of responding in an equivalence class despite the absence of any functions being explicitly trained to any stimulus within the class. In Experiment 1, a one-to-many conditional discrimination procedure was used to establish two three-member equivalence classes (A1, B1, C1 & A2, B2, C2) using nonsense syllables. Participants were then presented with printed versions of the stimuli inside plastic boxes alongside a box of Lego pieces and asked to respond as they felt appropriate. Results showed that Lego pieces were placed on top of the printed stimuli by four out of six participants; consistent class responding occurred for one participant. In Experiment 2, the procedure from Experiment 1 was replicated using the same participants, but this time two stimulus members
(B1 & C1) were replaced by images of Blue and Green Lego pieces
respectively. Responding within classes was more consistent across participants
and there was some evidence of blended responding at A1.
Experiment 3 replicated the procedure used in Experiment 2, this time
with experimentally naive participants. Again, although no functions
were explicitly trained, Lego pieces were placed on top of printed versions
of the stimuli and blended responding reliably occurred for all participants
at A1. Results are discussed in the context of procedures used
to investigate the emergence of novel behavior.
Key words: equivalence responding, transfer of function, rule following,
novel behavior, combinations of behavior, humans
... The procedures used for generating equivalence classes have been shown to be relevant to social psychological research in the areas of social attitudes, social categorization and stereotyping (Leslie et al., 1993;McGlinchey, Keenan, & Dillenburger, 2000;Moxon, Keenan, & Hine, 1993). Social attitudes are the evaluations that people make about socially significant objects, events, symbols, groups of people, or individuals, usually in either a positive or negative way (Hewstone, Stroebe, & Jonas, 2012). ...
The studies reported here examine how participants distribute resources to arbitrary stimuli in an equivalence class after one stimulus is given a social label. In Experiment 1, two 3-member equivalence classes were established with nonsense syllables
(Class 1: A1 (ZID), B1 (YIM), C1 (FAP) and Class 2: A2 (VEK), B2 (RIX), C2 (KUD)) using matching-to-sample training. A social function was then assigned to B1 only, using the simple verbal statement "YIMis a Good person." Next, participants were instructed to allocate tokens to stimuli in whatever way they consider appropriate. In general, the percentage distribution of tokens allocated to Class 1 was greater than those allocated to Class 2. Participants were then informed that a mistake had been made “Sorry I have made a mistake. YIMwas actually a bad person not a good person.” Participants were again asked to allocate tokens. In general, results showed a reduction in the distribution of tokens allocated to Class 1, with a relatively higher decrease for B1, and an increase in the distribution allocated to Class 2. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1 with the addition of a
baseline assessment of token distribution prior to examining the effects of adding a social function to B1.During this baseline, the distribution of tokens was relatively similar across both classes. When social functions were added, marked differences occurred
in the distribution depending on whether YIM was described as a “Good” or a “Bad” person. Results are discussed regarding transfer of function and its relevance to experimental social psychology.
... There is, however, a different perspective on variability. Previous studies by Watt et al. (1991), Moxon et al. (1993), andMcGlinchey et al. (2000), for example, examined social categorization by looking at how previous social learning biased responding between classes that had been established in the laboratory. All of these studies obtained variability in performance across participants but consistency in performance within participants. ...
This study extended previous research on equivalence classes that contain more than one function. Initially, separate equivalence classes were established (A1, B1, C1 and A3, B3, C3) using a one-to-many matching-to-sample procedure where A1 and A3 were the sample stimuli. These classes then were transformed into functional equivalence classes by training unique functions at A1 and A3; using modelling clay, a ball was made at A1 and an oblong was made at A3. These two classes then were joined together using another matching-to-sample procedure to establish the class X1-A1-A3. Tests were conducted to see what behaviours occurred in the presence of A1, X1, and A3. Of seven participants, three produced entirely new behaviours at X1, while the others produced the behaviours previously taught at A1 and A3. Results are discussed in the context of variables affecting the generation of novel behaviour.
... Over the past two decades this analytic strategy of juxtaposing natural with laboratory established verbal relations has yielded a fruitful functional analysis of a range of different psychological phenomenon, including clinical anxiety (Leslie et al., 1993), social discrimination (Dixon, Rehfeldt, Zlomke, & Robinson, 2006) and human intelligence (O'Toole & Barnes-Holmes, 2009). Similarly, it has been used in the study of self-knowledge (Merwin & Wilson, 2005), for identifying histories of child sexual abuse (McGlinchey, Keenan, & Dillenburger, 2000), as well as discriminating sex offenders from non-sex offenders (Roche et al., 2005). In a related line of inquiry, behavioral researchers have also attempted to develop behavior-analytic models of the IAT, or variations thereof (e.g., Barnes-Holmes, Arguably one of the most empirically and theoretically productive applications of the behavior-analytic approach to implicit cognition has been in the development of the IRAP. ...
... In other words, it appears that pre-existing verbal relations with a high probability of having been derived many times in the Northern Irish community disrupted the formation of low complexity relations that were inconsistent with that history of learning. This finding equipped researchers with a novel means to test the strength of pre-existing relational repertoires concerning clinical anxiety (Leslie et al., 1993) and social discrimination (Dixon, Rehfeldt, Zlomke, & Robinson, 2006) not to mention self-knowledge (Merwin & Wilson, 2005) and child sex abuse (McGlinchey, Keenan, & Dillenburger, 2000). More generally, this strategy of pitting relations with the same level of complexity (but different levels of derivation) against one another is foundational to many indirect procedures advanced thus far. ...
Throughout much of the past two decades, contextual behavioral science has been applied to a diverse spectrum of psychological phenomena. This intellectual voyage into uncharted waters has brought with it exciting new developments at the methodological and theoretical levels as well as increased contact with other philosophical frameworks such as mechanism. This expansion into new territories requires that the researcher carefully walk a tight-rope between different intellectual traditions—an activity that is subject to several challenges and dangers. In the following paper we provide a detailed map on how to navigate such pitfalls in the study of implicit cognition. We open with a comprehensive overview of the core assumptions and analytic strategies upon which the cognitive (mechanistic) and functional (contextual) traditions have been built. As we shall see, both traditions have sought to understand, predict, and in some cases influence, behavior using radically different conceptual, theoretical and methodological tools. The Relational Elaboration and Coherence (REC) model as well as the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) are offered as examples of how researchers can explore the domain of implicit cognition from a purely functional perspective. Finally, we examine the possibility that although the cognitive and functional frameworks operate at two independent levels of analysis each may be mutually informed by the work of the other, to the benefit of both.
... Barnes, lawlor, Smeets, and Roche (1995) employed the Watt et al. (1991) paradigm to examine the formation of stimulus equivalence relations between positive and negative words and subjects' own names (see also Merwin & Wilson, 2005). McGlinchey, Keenan, and Dillenburger (2000) harnessed the stimulus equivalence test paradigm in developing a method to identify the presence of child sexual abuse among children. Finally, Roche, Ruiz, O'Riordan, and Hand (2005) also reported on the use of the Watt et al. (1991) paradigm in a pilot study that attempted to distinguish child sex offenders from a sample of control subjects. ...
Subjects completed a baseline stimulus matching procedure designed to pro-duce two symmetrical stimulus relations; A1–B1 and A2–B2. Using A1, B1, and two novel stimuli, subjects were then trained to produce a common key-press response for two stimuli and a second key-press response for two fur-ther stimuli across two blocks of response training. During one block, the re-inforcement contingencies were consistent with baseline relations (i.e., A1 and B1 shared a response function), whereas during the other block they were not. Thirteen of 18 subjects who completed the procedure showed a response class acquisition rate differential across the two test blocks in the predicted direc-tion. It is suggested that this procedure may serve as a behavior analytic alter-native to popular implicit tests. It provides a nonrelative measure of stimulus association strength and may display superior procedural implicitness over other tests. There has been considerable recent interest in developing behavior analytic "implicit" tests for assessing histories of relational responding and stimulus relations generally. This interest can be traced to the finding that the stimulus relations formed during a subject's social history may interfere with the formation of novel stimulus relations, such as equivalence classes. Specifically, in what can now be surely described as a seminal study, Watt, Keenan, Barnes, and Cairns (1991) used a simple stimulus
... The procedure offered by Watt et al. represented a first possible implicit test method within behavior analysis that predated the advent of the popular Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998) by several years. Subsequent research utilized the paradigm by Watt et al. (1991) to study various different social histories established outside the laboratory, such as: social discrimination of Middle Eastern People (Dixon, Rehfeldt, Zlomke, & Robinson, 2006,) gender identity (Moxon et al., 1993, Kohlenberg, Hayes, & Hayes, 1991Roche & Barnes, 1996), self-esteem (Barnes, Lawlor, Smeets, & Roche, 1995, Merwin & Wilson, 2008, and child sexual abuse (McGlinchey, Keenan, & Dillenburger, 2000;Roche, Ruiz, O'Riordan, & Hand, 2005). However, the Watt et al. procedure was never harnessed into a widely used implicit test format (see below). ...
The development of implicit tests for measuring biases and behavioral predispositions is a recent development within psychology. While such tests are usually researched within a social-cognitive paradigm, behavioral researchers have also begun to view these tests as potential tests of conditioning histories, including in the sexual domain.
The objective of this paper is to illustrate the utility of a behavioral approach to implicit testing and means by which implicit tests can be built to the standards of behavioral psychologists.
Research findings illustrating the short history of implicit testing within the experimental analysis of behavior are reviewed. Relevant parallel and overlapping research findings from the field of social cognition and on the Implicit Association Test are also outlined.
New preliminary data obtained with both normal and sex offender populations are described in order to illustrate how behavior-analytically conceived implicit tests may have potential as investigative tools for assessing histories of sexual arousal conditioning and derived stimulus associations.
It is concluded that popular implicit tests are likely sensitive to conditioned and derived stimulus associations in the history of the test-taker rather than 'unconscious cognitions', per se.
... thus, it would appear that a derived relations paradigm may be used successfully to assess the social knowledge of participants without alerting them to the nature of the task. the stimulus equivalence-based approach has also been employed to discriminate anxious from nonanxious patients (leslie, tierney, robinson,Keenan, Watt, & Barnes, 1993), develop a diagnostic tool to identify children who have been sexually abused (McGlinchey, Keenan, & Dillenburger, 2000;see also Keenan, McGlinchey, Fairhurst, & Dillenberger, 2000), and to identify child sex offenders as a distinct social group within a larger population of non–sex offenders (see roche et al., 2005). other researchers have used the equivalence paradigm to assess subjects' attitudes toward themselves (Barnes, lawlor, Smeets, & roche, 1995;Merwin & Wilson, 2005), toward sexually explicit stimuli (Grey & Barnes, 1996), as well as attitudes of North Americans toward Middle easterners (seeDixon, Dymond, rehfeldt, roche, & Zlomke, 2003). ...
Subjects were exposed to a word-picture association training phase in which each of 2 arbitrary nonsense syllables printed in blue and red font, respectively, were paired with either sexual or aversive photographic images. Subjects were then exposed to an equivalence training procedure that led to the formation of 2 3-member equivalence relations, each containing 1 of the 2 nonsense syllables in their respective color fonts, and 2 novel nonsense syllables in black font. In effect, equivalence class 1 (blue) was associated with sexual images, while equivalence class 2 (red) was associated with aversive images. Subjects were then exposed to a 2-block test in which sexual and aversive images and all members of the trained equivalence relations, presented in black font, were employed. In 1 block, subjects were instructed to produce responses that were compatible with their laboratory history. Specifically, subjects were instructed to produce the same operant response on a computer keyboard upon the presentation of both sexual images and members of equivalence class 1 (blue), and to produce another common response upon the presentation of aversive images and members of equivalence class 2 (red). In the second block of the test the instructions were juxtaposed such that subjects were required to produce common responses to members of classes that were not previously associated with one another (e.g., sexual images and members of equivalence class 2, red). Differences in the fluency of performances across both blocks of the final test were sensitive to subjects’ relational and conditioning histories. That is, subjects produced significantly more correct responses during block 1 of the test compared to block 2. Such findings lay the foundation for the development of functionally understood behavioral tests and provide a functional-analytic model of the widely used Implicit Association Test.
... The first behaviour-analytic study to examine socially sensitive attitudes (i.e., religious categorization) utilizing derived relational responding was carried out by Watt, Keenan, Barnes, & Cairns (1991). Individuals living in Northern Ireland and English participants not living in Northern Ireland were exposed to a matching-to- Similar stimulus equivalence-based approaches have been used to discriminate anxious from non-anxious patients (Leslie, Tierney, Robinson, Keenan, Watt, & Barnes, 1993) and have been developed as a diagnostic tool to identify children who have been sexually abused (McGlinchey, Keenan, & Dillenburger, 2000). ...
... The phenomenon of stimulus equivalence (see below for a detailed account) has been used to explain a range of cognitive and language phenomena and has been used to build simple tests that allow behaviour analysts to; discriminate anxious from nonanxious patients (Leslie, Tierney, Robinson, Keenan, Watt, & Barnes, 1993), develop a diagnostic tool to identify children who have been sexually abused (McGlinchey, Keenan, & Dillenburger, 2000; see also Keenan, McGlinchey, Fairhurst, & Dillenberger, 2000) and to identify child sex offenders as a distinct social group within a larger population of non-sex offenders (see Roche, Ruiz, O' Riordan, & Hand, 2005). ...
... One published study has already employed a stimulus equivalence paradigm to develop a diagnostic tool to identify children who have been sexually abused (McGlinchey, Keenan, & Dillenburger, 2000). In that study, McGlinchey, Keenan and Dillenburger (2000) examined the extent to which normal equivalence responding can be disrupted by socially loaded stimuli. ...
... One published study has already employed a stimulus equivalence paradigm to develop a diagnostic tool to identify children who have been sexually abused (McGlinchey, Keenan, & Dillenburger, 2000). In that study, McGlinchey, Keenan and Dillenburger (2000) examined the extent to which normal equivalence responding can be disrupted by socially loaded stimuli. A group of children first participated in a standard equivalence training and testing procedure, using nonsense syllables and a range of pictures. ...
