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Abstract：
Stimulus equivalence (SE) is demonstrated when participants exposed to conditional discrimination training pass tests for reflexivity, symmetry, transitivity, and equivalence (symmetry combined with transitivity). Most theorists attribute the origin of SE to operant processes, but some argue that it results from Pavlovian conditioning. Symmetry is problematic for the latter hypothesis because it seems to require excitatory backward conditioning. However, equivalence tests resemble backward sensory preconditioning (BSP) and backward second-order conditioning (BSOC), two well-established processes. A review of associationistic theories of BSP and BSOC showed that the temporal coding hypothesis (TCH) explains outcomes that other associationistic theories cannot explain (i.e., BSOC and BSP effects after first-order conditioning with delay vs. trace conditioning and forward vs. backward conditioning). The TCH assumes that organisms encode the temporal attributes of stimulus events (e.g., order and interval duration) and this temporal information is integrated across separate phases of training. The TCH seems compatible with a behavioral analysis if direct stimulus control replaces the notion of temporal maps. The TCH perspective does not seem applicable to SE because SE tests are not predictive tasks. This suggests that SE is fundamentally different from BSP and BSOC and a Pavlovian conditioning analysis of SE is inadequate. This conclusion is consistent with previous criticism of a Pavlovian account of SE according to which Pavlovian conditioning cannot be interpreted as stimulus substitution.
摘要：
当参与者接受条件歧视训练通过反身性测试时，就证明了刺激等效性（SE），对称性，传递性,和等价(对称性与传递性相结合)。大多数理论家将SE的起源归因于操作过程，但有些人认为这是巴甫洛夫调节的结果。对称性对于后一种假设是有问题的，因为它似乎需要兴奋性的反向调节。然而,等效性测试类似于后向感觉预处理(BSP)和后向二阶条件(BSOC)，两个成熟的过程。对BSP和BSOC的关联理论的回顾表明，时间编码假设（TCH）解释了其他关联理论无法解释的结果（即，一阶调节后的BSOC和BSP效应与延迟跟踪调节和正向与向后调节)。TCH假设生物体编码刺激事件的时间属性(例如，顺序和间隔持续时间)，并且此时间信息在不同的训练阶段进行集成。如果直接刺激控制取代了时间图的概念，则TCH似乎与行为分析兼容。TCH观点似乎不适用于SE，因为SE测试不是预测性任务。这表明SE与BSP和BSOC根本不同，并且对SE的巴甫洛夫条件分析不足。此结论与先前对SE的巴甫洛夫式描述的批评一致，根据该批评，巴甫洛夫式条件不能解释为刺激替代。
