Expectancies Flexibility and Relational Responding: The Role of the Training History and Functional Coherence

• Autores: J. Carmelo Visdómine Lozano
• Localización: International journal of psychology and psychological therapy, ISSN 1577-7057, Vol. 21, Nº. 2, 2021, págs. 149-175
• Idioma: español
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo (pdf)
• Resumen

  • This paper aims to complete the research on the way in which the transfer and reversal of both internal and external control expectancies is prompted in problem-solving tasks. In Experiment 1, ten adult participants were presented 24 cards to test for two pre-existing arbitrary classes through a stimuli-sorting task. Subsequently, three stimuli per class were employed to train respectively either internal or external attributions. Problem-solving included differential cueing and verbal feedback as interventions. A test for the transfer of expectancies was arranged on two novel stimuli per class, and the problems corresponding to these stimuli were also trained. Finally, an analogy or illustrated instruction centered on the ability of the participants was presented to reverse the attributions on novel stimuli of both classes. Results showed that almost all participants reached the transfer of internal and external expectancies, but only one participant reversed his expectancies. Experiment 2 (ten participants) followed the same procedure, but did not include the training of the problems corresponding to the transfer stimuli. The same illustrated instruction was presented, and, this time, 6 out of the 8 participants who passed the training criteria showed a differential reversal, presenting a more flexible pattern due to a training of fewer exemplars. Finally, in Experiment 3, five adult participants followed the same experimental training procedure, but a different analogy centered on the means required to solve the problems, and referred only to the external attributions class, was presented. All participants showed the transfer of expectancies; one participant reversed his expectancies for class 2, and the remaining four showed an undefined pattern of responding, presenting a flexible and open responding. Results are discussed in terms of the variables that prompt competitive functions and incoherence in a relational network, and those that promote flexibility.