Direct and derived extinction of avoidance responses in equivalence classes

Symbolically acquired stimulus functions can be reduced through direct learning processes such as respondent and operant extinction, which differ from the procedures that originally generated those functions.

“More specifically, symbolically acquired stimulus functions can be reduced through direct learning processes, namely respondent and operant extinction (Bennett et al., 2020;Boldrin & Debert, 2020;Roche et al., 2008;Vervoort et al., 2014), that differ from the procedures that were used to generate the acquired stimulus functions in the first instance.”

The second line involves using exposure methods to reduce avoidance response rates established through AARR, targeting either the original directly conditioned discriminative stimulus or derived relational stimuli, and comparing outcomes.

“The second involves attempting to reduce avoidance response rates that have been established through AARR using exposure methods targeting either the original directly conditioned discriminative stimulus for avoidance or the derived relational stimuli whose avoidance functions have been acquired through the AARR process, and comparing outcomes (Boldrin & Debert, 2020;Roche et al., 2008).”