Priming complex words: evidence for supralexical representation of morphology

Effects of morphologically related primes were examined in two masked prime experiments. Responses to both free root and derived suffixed word targets were facilitated when primes were derived suffixed words containing the target’s root, and this facilitation effect showed a time course similar to that for the facilitation effect of repetition primes (though systematically smaller in magnitude). In a control experiment only the longest prime duration of Experiment 1 was used; responses to derived suffixed word targets were facilitated by both free root primes and derived suffixed word primes sharing the target’s root (relative to unrelated and form-related control primes). The free root and derived suffixed word prime conditions did not differ significantly. In Experiment 2, only true derived word primes produced facilitation, whereas morphologically simple primes containing a pseudoroot did not influence performance relative to the unrelated prime condition. We argue that this supports a supralexical account of morphological representation.     

The turple effect is modulated by base word frequency: Implications for models of lexical and semantic access

People who are asked to classify whether words presented visually belong to the category of animals respond to nonwords derived from animal names more slowly than they do to nonwords derived from nonanimal names. This is known as the turple effect (Forster, 2006; Forster & Hector, 2002). In the present article, we show that the turple effect is modulated by the frequency of the animal names from which the nonwords are derived: In particular, we show that nonwords derived from high-frequency animal names are rejected faster than those derived from low-frequency animal names. We discuss the implications of this result for two approaches to lexical and semantic access modeling. 2008 Psychonomic Society, Inc.     

Mathematical Reasoning: Adults' Ability to Make the Inductive-Deductive Distinction

In this study, I examined adults' ability to distinguish necessary deductive and indeterminate inductive forms of argument in mathematics. Only 30% of a sample of college students distinguished deductive and inductive forms of argument and experienced deductively derived conclusions as necessary and inductively derived conclusions as uncertain. Forty percent failed to distinguish deductive and inductive forms and experienced inductively derived and deductively derived conclusions as necessary. Thirty percent distinguished deductive and inductive arguments but experienced deductively derived and inductively derived conclusions as uncertain. As observed in other reasoning domains, the introduction of personal beliefs or knowledge about the argument content appeared to affect adult reasoners' application of knowledge about forms of argument and judgments of necessity. The results suggest the following conclusions. Adults' experience of the conclusions from mathematical inductive and deductive arguments as provisional conclusions or necessary conclusions depends on a complex coordination involving ability to attend to abstract premise-conclusion relations and beliefs about the nature of mathematical objects and regularities. Thus, two major achievements are involved, explaining the low numbers able to judge necessity in mathematics.     

The role of verbal behavior in the establishment of comparative relations

Twelve college students received conditional discrimination training with nonarbitrary and arbitrary stimuli, and derived comparative and transformation of function tests with a think-aloud condition across 2 experiments. Participants who failed these tests received remedial verbal operant training. Four control participants received verbal operant training alone. Across both experiments, only 1 participant passed the derived comparative test after conditional discrimination training. However, all participants passed derived comparative tests and 11 out of 12 participants passed transformation of function tests following verbal operant training, including the 4 control participants. Participants who passed derived comparative tests engaged in a high percentage of correct vocalizations during the think-aloud condition, while participants who failed did not. These results suggest that mediating verbal behavior could have played a crucial role in participants' responses during derived stimulus relations tests.     

Exploring a Training IRAP as a single participant context for analyzing reversed derived relations and persistent rule-following

Rule-governed behavior and derived stimulus relations have always shared strong conceptual links within behavior analysis. However, experimental analysis linking the two domains remains limited. The current study consisted of three experiments that aimed to continue to bridge this experimental gap. The first experiment sought to establish the extent to which a training version of the implicit relational assessment procedure (IRAP) could be used to establish and successfully reverse experimentally established derived relations. The results suggested that the Training IRAP could successfully produce derived reversals. Experiments 2 and 3 explored the extent to which reversed derived relations would control rule-governed behavior when the contingencies for rule-following competed with the rule. In Experiment 2, the task contingencies were immediately in opposition to the (reversed) derived rule, and participants generally responded in accordance with the task contingencies, rather than the rule. In Experiment 3, the task contingencies were initially rule-consistent before a contingency reversal that later made them rule-inconsistent. Here evidence of rule-persistence emerged. The results of the research are considered within the context of a recent framework that has emerged out of RFT for analyzing the dynamics involved in derived relational responding.     

Contributions to the mathematical theory of human relations: V

Previously derived equations for the control of the behavior of one social group by another are developed further. Cases of interaction of three social classes are studied, and the variation of such an interaction with time is investigated. A previously derived equation for the ratio of urban to rural population is generalized, and a theory of interaction of industrial and agricultural classes is outlined. Some of the theoretically derived equations are compared with available sociological data and found in fair agreement.     

Contriving transitive conditioned establishing operations to establish derived manding skills in adults with severe developmental disabilities

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate derived manding skills in 2 adults with severe developmental disabilities and language deficits by contriving transitive conditioned establishing operations. Specifically, we evaluated whether a history of reinforced conditional discrimination learning would ultimately result in a derived mand repertoire, in which participants manded for items that were needed to complete chained tasks. After mastering the first three phases of the picture exchange communication system (PECS), participants were taught to mand for the needed items by exchanging pictures of the items for the items themselves. They were then taught to conditionally relate the dictated names of the items to the corresponding pictures of the items and to relate the dictated names to the corresponding printed words. We then tested, in the absence of reinforcement, whether participants would mand for the items needed to complete the chained tasks using text rather than pictures. Both participants showed the emergence of derived mands and some derived stimulus relations as a result of this instruction. Some of the derived relations were shown to be intact at 1-month follow-up, and scores on derived mand probes were higher at follow-up than before training. In addition, the 2 participants vocally requested the needed items on maintenance test probes, a skill that was never trained and was not previously in their repertoires. These results suggest that a history of reinforced relational responding may facilitate the expansion of a number of verbal skills and emphasize the possibility of a synthesis of Skinner's (1957) analysis of verbal behavior and derived stimulus relations into language-training efforts for persons with significant disabilities.     

New knowledge derived from learned knowledge: functional-anatomic correlates of stimulus equivalence

Forming new knowledge based on knowledge established through prior learning is a central feature of higher cognition that is captured in research on stimulus equivalence (SE). Numerous SE investigations show that reinforcing behavior under control of distinct sets of arbitrary conditional relations gives rise to stimulus control by new, derived relations. This investigation examined whether frontal-subcortical and frontal-parietal networks known to support reinforced conditional relations also support derived conditional relations. Twelve adult subjects completed matching-to-sample (MTS) training with correct/wrong feedback to establish four trained conditional relations within two distinct, three-member stimulus classes: (1) A1-->B1, B1-->C1 and (2) A2-->B2, B2-->C2. Afterwards, functional neuroimaging was performed when MTS trials were presented involving matching two identical circles (a sensorimotor control condition), trained relations (A-->B, B-->C), and derived relations: symmetry (B-->A, C-->B), transitivity (A-->C), and equivalence (C-->A). Conditional responding to trained and derived relations was similarly correlated with bilateral activation in the targeted networks. Comparing trained to derived relations, however, highlighted greater activation in several prefrontal regions, the caudate, thalamus, and putamen, which may represent the effects of extended training or feedback present during imaging. Each derived relation also evidenced a unique activation pattern. Collectively, the findings extend the role of frontal-subcortical and frontal-parietal networks to derived conditional relations and suggest that regional involvement varies with the type of derived conditional relation.     

Derived manding in children with autism: synthesizing Skinner's verbal behavior with relational frame theory

Mand functions for two stimuli (A1 and A2) were trained for 3 children with autism and were then incorporated into two related conditional discriminations (A1-B1/A2 -B2 and B1-C1/B2-C2). Tests were conducted to probe for a derived transfer of mand response functions from A1 and A2 to C1 and C2, respectively. When 1 participant failed to demonstrate derived transfer of mand response functions, transfer training using exemplars was conducted. When participants had demonstrated derived transfer of mand functions, the X1 and X2 tokens that were employed as reinforcers for mand responses were incorporated into two conditional discriminations (X1-Y1/X2-Y2 and Y1-Z1/Y2-Z2). Tests were conducted for derived transfer of reinforcing functions. Finally, tests were conducted to determine if the participants would demonstrate derived manding for the derived reinforcers (present C1 and C2 to mand for Z1 and Z2, respectively). Derived transfer of functions was observed when the sequence of training and testing was reversed (i.e., training and testing reinforcing functions before mand response functions) and when only minimal instructions were provided.     

MMPI scales for DSM-III personality disorders: their derivation and correlates

Scales tapping the dimensions of personality disorder as represented in the DSM-III were derived using a combined rational/empirical strategy. The final version of the scales demonstrated both content validity as well as internal consistency. Correlations between the derived scales and between these scales and the original MMPI clinical scales were generally found to be in the expected direction providing preliminary evidence of criterion related validity. It is suggested that the derived scales may represent an advance toward the reliable assessment of DSM-III personality constructs.     

Derived transformation of children's pregambling game playing

Contemporary behavior-analytic perspectives on gambling emphasize the impact of verbal relations, or derived relational responding and the transformation of stimulus functions, on the initiation and maintenance of gambling. Approached in this way, it is possible to undertake experimental analysis of the role of verbal/mediational variables in gambling behavior. The present study therefore sought to demonstrate the ways new stimuli could come to have functions relevant to gambling without those functions being trained directly. Following a successful derived-equivalence-relations test, a simulated board game established high- and low-roll functions for two concurrently presented dice labelled with members of the derived relations. During the test for derived transformation, children were reexposed to the board game with dice labelled with indirectly related stimuli. All participants except 1 who passed the equivalence relations test selected the die that was indirectly related to the trained high-roll die more often than the die that was indirectly related to low-roll die, despite the absence of differential outcomes. All participants except 3 also gave the derived high-roll die higher liking ratings than the derived low-roll die. The implications of the findings for behavior-analytic research on gambling and the development of verbally-based interventions for disordered gambling are discussed.     

Brain potentials for derivational morphology: an ERP study of deadjectival nominalizations in Spanish

This study investigates brain potentials to derived word forms in Spanish. Two experiments were performed on derived nominals that differ in terms of their productivity and semantic properties but are otherwise similar, an acceptability judgment task and a reading experiment using event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in which correctly and incorrectly formed derived words were presented in sentence contexts. The first experiment indicated productivity differences between the different nominalization processes in Spanish. The second experiment yielded a pattern of ERP responses that differed from both the familiar lexical-semantic and grammatical ERP effects. Violations of derivational morphology elicited an increased N400 component plus a late positivity (P600), unlike gender-agreement violations, which produced the biphasic LAN/P600 ERP pattern known from previous studies of morpho-syntactic violations. We conclude that the recognition of derived word forms engages both word-level (lexical-semantic) and decompositional (morpheme-based) processes.     

What’s in a name, what’s in a place? The role of verbal labels in distinct cognitive tasks

The effects of congruent and incongruent labelling on two simple cognitive tasks, sequence learning and place learning, were investigated. The results of both studies indicate the greater cognitive importance of information derived from the object compared to information derived from the verbal label.     

Effects of context-induced processing operations on semantic information acquired from discourse

Effects of context on processes involved in understanding discourse were investigated. An experimental context designed to directly affect discourse processing by inducing subjects to generate inferences involving text content was compared to a context in which subjects simply listened to and recalled the content of a text. The extent of inferential discourse processing was estimated from derived semantic information in subjects' text recalls. The experimental context produced effects on inferred and other derived information in subjects' text recalls which were predicted from a constructive model of discourse processing. Also consistent with this model, the amount of derived information increased with repeated exposures to the text. In a third condition, subjects repeatedly listened to the text in the experimental context, but only recalled it once on the last trial. The context produced very substantial effects on proportions of derived information under this condition. Context effects were still present one week later.     

Control of social desirability in personality inventories: Principal-factor deletion

Rational and statistical techniques for controlling social desirability (SD) in scales derived from self-report inventories are reviewed. The principal-factor deletion technique is explained in detail. It is applied during factor analysis when derived content scales are expected to be tainted with SD. If one principal factor is found to represent social desirability, the implicated factor is dropped and the communalities adjusted before the remaining factors are rotated to a desired simple structure criterion. Subscales derived from resulting factors are free of SD bias. Principal-factor deletion is compared with other approaches including rational techniques, covariate procedures, and target rotation.     

Inconsistency in spatial knowledge

Two experiments examined whether spatial information judged from cognitive maps contains the functional euclidean properties of real maps. In Experiment 1, the six directions between sets of threetriad locations in a town were judged from memory. The angle formed by the two judged directions from a location to the other two locations in a triad was derived. The three derived angles of a triad were then summed. The derived angles were found to be biased toward 90 deg. The sum of the three derived angles of a triad also exceeded 180 deg, which violates the euclidean properties of real maps. In Experiment 2, subjects judged the direction between pairs of American cities in both directions. The judged directions were found to be consistently nonreversible, which is contrary to the properties of euclidean geometry. The study suggests that information judged from cognitive maps can contain internally inconsistent spatial properties, and the results are discussed in terms of current theories of spatial representation.     

Understanding complex behavior: the transformation of stimulus functions

The transformation of stimulus functions is said to occur when the functions of one stimulus alter or transform the functions of another stimulus in accordance with the derived relation between the two, without additional training. This effect has been demonstrated with a number of derived stimulus relations, behavioral functions, experimental preparations, and subject populations. The present paper reviews much of the existing research on the transformation of stimulus functions and outlines a number of important methodological and conceptual issues that warrant further attention. We conclude by advocating the adoption of the generic terminology of relational frame theory to describe both the derived transformation of stimulus functions and relational responding more generally.     

Prediction in future samples studied in terms of the gain from selection

The gain from selection (GS) is defined as the standardized average performance of a group of subjects selected in a future sample using a regression equation derived on an earlier sample. Expressions for the expected value, density, and distribution function (DF) of GS are derived and studied in terms of sample size, number of predictors, and the prior distribution assigned to the population multiple correlation. The DF of GS is further used to determine how large sample sizes must be so that with probability .90 (.95), the expected GS will be within 90 percent of its maximum possible value. An approximately unbiased estimator of the expected GS is also derived.     

Postmenopausal Motherhood Reloaded: Advanced Age and In Vitro Derived Gametes

In this paper we look at the implications of an emerging technology for the case in favor of, or against, postmenopausal motherhood. Technologies such as in vitro derived gametes (sperm and eggs derived from nonreproductive cells) have the potential to influence the ways in which reproductive medicine is practiced, and are already bringing new dimensions to debates in this area. We explain what in vitro derived gametes are and how their development may impact on the case of postmenopausal motherhood. We briefly review some of the concerns that postmenopausal motherhood has raised—and the implications that the successful development, and use in reproduction, of artificial gametes might have for such concerns. The concerns addressed include arguments from nature, risks and efficacy, reduced energy of the mother, and maternal life expectancy. We also consider whether the use of in vitro derived gametes to facilitate postmenopausal motherhood would contribute to reinforcing a narrow, geneticized account of reproduction and a pro‐reproductive culture that encourages women to produce genetically related offspring at all costs.