Molecular Analysis of Conditional Discriminations: The Sequential Pattern of Human Learning.
Whether the acquisition of conditional relations occurs simultaneously or sequentially is often obscured by global accuracy measures. The present study analyzed the acquisition of conditional discriminations in humans using a molecular, trial-by-trial approach. Three undergraduate students were trai...
| Published in: | Psychological Record Vol. 76; no. 2; pp. 157 - 167 |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article |
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Springer Nature
Jun2026
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=195791068&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 195791068 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00332933 PSD jtl: Psychological Record issn: 00332933 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jun2026 vid: 76 iid: 2 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 195791068 10.1007/s40732-026-00690-3 ppf: 157 ppct: 10 formats: tig: atl: Molecular Analysis of Conditional Discriminations: The Sequential Pattern of Human Learning. aug: au: Rubio, Adriana Regina Tomanari, Gerson Yukio affil: https://ror.org/012mm7y56 Universidade Metodista, São Bernardo do Campo, SP, Brasil https://ror.org/036rp1748 Instituto de Psicologia, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brasil Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia sobre Comportamento, Cognição e Ensino, INCT-ECCE, São Carlos, SP, Brasil su: Learning Reinforcement (Psychology) Equivalence classes (Set theory) Differentiation (Cognition) Pattern perception sug: subj: Learning Reinforcement (Psychology) Equivalence classes (Set theory) Differentiation (Cognition) Pattern perception keyword: Conditional relation training Humans Matching-to-sample task Sequential acquisition Conditional relation training Humans Matching-to-sample task Sequential acquisition ab: Whether the acquisition of conditional relations occurs simultaneously or sequentially is often obscured by global accuracy measures. The present study analyzed the acquisition of conditional discriminations in humans using a molecular, trial-by-trial approach. Three undergraduate students were trained on 12 visual conditional relations, divided into two sets (AB and BC), using an arbitrary zero-delay matching-to-sample (MTS) procedure. Results showed that all participants reached the acquisition criteria for each conditional relation at different moments during training. The cumulative frequency curves for each relation showed minimal overlap, indicating a clear sequential pattern of acquisition where relations were learned one by one. These findings suggest that average accuracy scores can mask individual learning trajectories and that reinforcement histories develop uniquely for each relation during training. Understanding these fundamental learning processes in MTS is a crucial step toward elucidating the mechanisms governing the formation of equivalence classes and possibly improving the efficiency with which these classes are formed. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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