Trial lecture title: The role of verbal mediation in equivalence class formation.
Th ordinary opponents are:
- First opponent: Professor Kenneth Reeve, Caldwell University, USA
- Second opponent: Assistant Professor Karen Lionello-DeNolf, Assumption College, USA
- Leader of the committee: Associate Professor Børge Strømgren, OsloMet, Norway
The leader of the public defence is Professor Ingunn Sandaker, OsloMet.
The main supervisor is Professor Erik Arntzen, OsloMet.
Thesis abstract
The current thesis examined equivalence class formation as a function of meaningful stimuli.
First study
The first study explored yields of class formation as a result of having zero, one, two or three meaningful stimuli as C-stimuli in three 5-member equivalence classes (A-B-C-D-E).
The results of the study showed that class formation yields are a function of the number of meaningful stimuli in to-be-formed classes.
Second study
The second study examined the inclusion of meaningful stimuli on equivalence class formation in large classes (three 7-member equivalence classes (A-B-C-D-E-F-G)) by exposing participants to two main experimental conditions:
- ABS (to-be-formed classes consisted of only abstract stimuli)
- PIC (to-be-formed classes consisted of abstract stimuli with the D stimuli as meaningful stimuli).
The results from Study 2 showed that class formation yields were higher for the PIC group relative to the ABS group.
Third study
In Study 3, three experiments examined the color of meaningful stimuli (Experiment 1), the inclusion or exclusion of meaningful stimuli in emergent relations test trials (Experiment 2), and the effect of the number and location of meaningful stimuli (Experiment 3) on three 5-member equivalence classes formation.
The findings from Experiment 1 showed that equivalence class formation is a function of the meaningful stimuli included in a to-be-formed classes and not necessarily the meaningful stimulus plus its color.
The findings from Experiment 2 showed that equivalence class formation enhancement by a meaningful stimulus is as a result of the inclusion of the meaningful stimulus during conditional discrimination training and not as a consequence of the mere inclusion of the meaningful stimulus in emergent relations testing.
In Experiment 3, the results showed that equivalence class formation is a function of the number and location of meaningful stimuli in a to-be-formed class.
