Transfer of function through equivalence classes involving facial expressions of happiness and fear

Abstract

Studies on equivalence relations have suggested that abstract symbols might acquire emotional meaning when related to facial expressions of happiness, sadness or ranger, for example. Recently, researches have highlighted the importance of the symbolic generalization of fear on the genesis of anxiety disorders. The present research project aims to investigate the transfer of meaning from facial expressions of fear to abstract stimuli via equivalence relations. It presents three experiments that apply the procedures develop by Bortoloti and de Rose (e.g., 2009, 2012) to assess transfer of meaning. Participants will be verbally competent adults. In Experiment 1, a matching-to-sample task will be used to establish two equivalence classes between facial expressions of emotions and abstract stimuli. Facial expressions of fear will be part of Class 1: A1(Fear)-B1-C1-D1; facial expressions of happiness will be part of Class 2: A2(Hapiness)-B2-C2-D2. After relational training (AB, AC, CD) and equivalence tests (BD, DB), a differential semantic scale will be given to participants so that they evaluate the meaning of one stimulus from each class, D1 and D2, related to a facial expression of fear (A1) or happiness (A2), respectively. After that, the same abstract stimuli will be presented in a behavioral task to register the occurrence of avoidance responses. Experiment 2 will replicate Experiment 1, however, the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) will be used to measure the implicit meaning of the abstract stimuli - instead of the avoidance task. Finally, Experiment 3 will investigate the contextual control of transfer of meaning. Therefor, two equivalence classes under contextual control of two background colors will be established: Orange: A1(Fear)-B1-C1-D1, A2(Happiness)-B2-C2-D2; Purple: A1(Fear)-B1-C1-D2, A2(Happiness)-B2-C2-D1.The differential semantic scale and the IRAP will assess the transformation of meaning under contextual control. (AU)