ABSTRACT
Resumo A teoria de eventos privados tem sido alvo de intensos debates e controvérsias, apesar de configurar-se como o modo mais comum de abordagem e explicação de fenômenos subjetivos no Behaviorismo Radical. O presente trabalho insere-se nessa discussão, buscando deslindar o conceito de evento privado e a noção de privacidade nele implicado. A partir das definições e usos do termo encontrados na literatura da área, propõe-se a consideração do termo evento privado como evento comportamental de observabilidade circunstancialmente restrita. Nesse sentido, afastando-se de acepções como "interno", "único", ou ainda, "inobservável em princípio", a noção de privacidade é compreendida como observabilidade circunstancialmente restrita. Destaca-se que o conceito de eventos privados pode ser utilizado na explicação do comportamento desde que tomado em uma compreensão relacional e contextual.
Abstract The private event theory has been subject of intense debates and controversies, although it is accepted as the most common way to approach and explain subjective phenomena in Radical Behaviorism. This work is part of this discussion and seeks to disentangle the concept of private event and the notion of privacy involved in it. From the definitions and uses of the term found in the specialized literature, consideration of private event term as behavioral event with circumstantially restricted observability is proposed. In this sense, diverging from meanings as "inner", "unique" or "unobservable in principle", the notion of privacy is comprehended in terms of a circumstantially restricted observability. It is emphasized that the concept of private events may be used in the explanation of behavior since it is considered into a relational and contextual comprehension.
Resumen La teoría de los eventos privados ha sido objeto de intensos debates y controversias, a pesar de que se ha aceptado como la forma más común de abordar y explicar los fenómenos subjetivos en el Conductismo Radical. Este trabajo es parte de esta discusión, en su empeño de desentrañar el concepto de evento privado y la noción de privacidad que participan en ella. A partir de las definiciones y usos del término que se encuentran en la literatura especializada, se propone la consideración de evento privado como un evento conductual con observabilidad circunstancialmente restringida. En este sentido, se aparta de significados como "interno", "único", o "no observable en principio"; mientras la noción de privacidad se entiende en términos de observabilidad circunstancialmente restringida. Es de destacar que el concepto de eventos privados se puede utilizar en la explicación del comportamiento si es considerado desde una comprensión relacional y contextual.
ABSTRACT
Recent research using the event-related potential (ERP) technique has shown that equivalence relations have properties similar to genuine semantic relations. This study aimed to advance electrophysiological investigations of the functional overlap between semantic and equivalence relations. The N400 component, an index of semantic processing, was used to measure whether semantic relations were experimentally established between arbitrary stimuli. The stimuli became equivalent via a matching-to-sample training designed to maximize the establishment of equivalence relations and the strength of the classes. Non-equivalent pairs of stimuli elicited larger N400 responses than equivalent pairs in electrodes placed over the central and parietal scalp regions, providing additional support for the assumption that stimulus equivalence is an appropriate model of semantic relations. Latency of the N400 component was shorter than in previous studies, probably due to experimental parameters that maximized relational strength. These data raise the possibility that N400 latency may provide a continuous measure of relational strength, thus supplementing the all-or-none character of equivalence tests based on matching to sample...
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Female , Young Adult , Electric Stimulation , Evoked Potentials , SemanticsABSTRACT
The present study investigated whether overtraining of the conditional discriminations that are the prerequisites of equivalence class formation strengthens the relations among stimuli in an equivalence class. Two groups of college students formed equivalence classes that consisted of faces that expressed emotions (A) and arbitrary stimuli (B, C, D, and E). The overtraining group had twice as many training trials as the regular training group. For participants who formed equivalence classes, relational strength was evaluated by the generalization of expressed emotions from the A to the D stimuli, which was measured using a semantic differential. An untrained control group showed semantic differential scores that were positive for happy faces, negative for angry faces, and neutral for the D stimuli. For the experimental groups, the D stimuli, when included in equivalence classes, produced scores that were similar to those produced by the equivalent faces. The overtraining group, however, had average values closer to the values of the faces than the regular training group. These results indicate that the amount of training is an experimental parameter that influences the strength of relations between stimuli that are found to be equivalent in matching-to-sample tests...