The effect of meaningful stimuli on eye movements in stimulus equivalence class formation

Figures & data

Figure 1. The Stimuli used in each group.

The numbers denote the stimuli classes, and the letters denote class members. N-ABS = node as abstract stimuli group, N-PIC = node as picture stimuli group, ABS= all abstract stimuli group.

Figure 2. A visual display of trials as it appears on the computer screene.

Panel (a) shows an example of baseline trials for N-ABS and symmetry trials for N-PIC. Panel (b) shows an example of baseline trials in N-PIC and symmetry trials in N-ABS, and Panel (c) shows an example of all trials in ABS and equivalence trials in N-PIC.

Table 1. Overview of the training and test phases.

Phases	Trial Types	Number of trial types	Minimum # of Trials	Programmed Consequences (%)
Training Phase 1:	A1B1, A2B2, A3B3, A1C1, A2C2, A3C3, A1D1, A2D2, A3D3, A1E1, A2E2, A3E3	5	60	100
Training Phase 2:	A1B1, A2B2, A3B3, A1C1, A2C2, A3C3, A1D1, A2D2, A3D3, A1E1, A2E2, A3E3	5	60	75
Training Phase 3:	A1B1, A2B2, A3B3, A1C1, A2C2, A3C3, A1D1, A2D2, A3D3, A1E1, A2E2, A3E3	5	60	25
Training Phase 4:	A1B1, A2B2, A3B3, A1C1, A2C2, A3C3, A1D1, A2D2, A3D3, A1E1, A2E2, A3E3	5	60	0
Test Phase:	Baseline
	A1B1, A2B2, A3B3, A1C1, A2C2, A3C3, A1D1, A2D2, A3D3, A1E1, A2E2, A3E3	3	36	0
	Symmetry
	B1A1, B2A2, B3A3, C1A1, C2A2, C3A3, D1A1, D2A2, D3A3, D1A1, D2A2, D3A3	3	36	0
	Equivalence
	B1C1, B2C2, B3C3, B1D1, B2D2, B3D3, B1E1, B2E2, B3E3, C1D1, C2D2, C3D3, C1E1, C2E2, C3E3, D1E1, D2E2, D3E3, C1B1, C2B2, C3B3, D1B1, D2B2, D3B3, E1B1, E2B2, E3B3, D1C1, D2C2, D3C3, E1C1, E2C2, E3C3, E1D1, E2D2, E3D3	3	108	0

short-legendFigure 3.

The graph shows the averaged mean fixation duration to sample stimulus at the beginning and the end of the training, and the first five and the last five test trials of each relation tested. The asterisk represents a statistically significant one-way ANOVA test. BSL=baseline relations, SYM=symmetry, EQ=equivalence, N-ABS = node as abstract stimuli group, N-PIC = node as picture stimuli group, ABS= all abstract stimuli group. Error bars represent the standard error of the mean (SEM). ms=milliseconds.

short-legendFigure 4.

The graph shows the averaged mean fixation duration to correct comparison stimuli at the beginning and the end of the training and the first five and the last five test trials of each relation tested. The asterisk denotes statistically significant post hoc Tukey tests. BSL=baseline relations, SYM=symmetry, EQ=equivalence, N-ABS = node as abstract stimuli group, N-PIC = node as picture stimuli group, ABS= all abstract stimuli group. Error bars represent the standard error of the mean (SEM). ms=milliseconds.

short-legendFigure 5.

The graph shows the averaged mean fixation duration to incorrect comparison stimuli at the beginning and the end of the training, and the first five and the last five test trials of each relation tested. The asterisk denotes statistically significant post hoc Tukey tests. BSL=baseline relations, SYM=symmetry, EQ=equivalence, N-ABS = node as abstract stimuli group, N-PIC = node as picture stimuli group, ABS= all abstract stimuli group. Error bars represent the standard error of the mean (SEM). ms=milliseconds.

short-legendFigure 6.

The graph shows the average mean number of gaze transitions between stimuli at the beginning and end of the training and the first five and the last five test trials of each relation tested. The asterisk denotes statistically significant post hoc Tukey tests. BSL=baseline relations, SYM=symmetry, EQ=equivalence, N-ABS = node as abstract stimuli group, N-PIC = node as picture stimuli group, ABS= all abstract stimuli group. Error bars represent the standard error of the mean (SEM).

short-legendFigure 7.

The graph shows the mean percentage of trials with refixation to sample stimulus at the beginning and the end of the training, and the first five and the last five test trials of each relation tested. The asterisk denotes statistically significant post hoc Tukey tests. BSL=baseline relations, SYM=symmetry, EQ=equivalence, N-ABS = node as abstract stimuli group, N-PIC = node as picture stimuli group, ABS= all abstract stimuli group. Error bars represent the standard error of the mean (SEM).

Table 2. Results from the statistical tests.

	Statistical Test Results
Eye Movement Measures	Kruskal-Wallis	Post Hoc Dunn’s test
Fixation Duration to Sample Stimuli
First five BSL	H = 6.575, p = .0373	N-ABS vs N-PIC	p=.0384
Fixation Duration to Correct Comparison Stimuli
Last Training Block	H = 6.887, p = .032
First five BSL	H = 10.01, p = .0067	N-ABS vs ABS	p=.0063
First Five EQ	H = 6.74, p = .0344	N-ABS vs ABS	p=.0309
Fixation Duration to Incorrect Comparison Stimuli
Last Training Block	H = 11.74, p = .0028	N-ABS vs N-PIC	p=.0022
First five BSL	H = 7.208, p = .0272	N-ABS vs ABS	p=.0287
First Five EQ	H = 7.814, p = .0201	N-ABS vs ABS	p=.0156
Last five SYM	H = 8.266, p = .0160	N-PIC vs ABS	p=.0126
Last Five EQ	H = 8.434, p = .0147	N-ABS vs N-PIC	p=.0156
Gaze Transitions
Last Training Block	H = 11.01 p = .0041	N-ABS vs N-PIC	p=.0241
		N-ABS vs ABS	p=.0072
First five BSL	H = 6.791, p = .0335	N-ABS vs ABS	p=.0282
Last five SYM	H = 7.329, p = .0364	N-PIC vs ABS	p=.0364
Number of Trials With Refixation to Sample Stimulus
First Training Block	H = 6.196, p = .0451	N-ABS vs N-PIC	p=.0424
BSL	H = 14.22, p = .0008	N-ABS vs N-PIC	p=.0103
		N-PIC vs ABS	p=.0013
EQ	H = 6.624, p = .0364	N-ABS vs N-PIC	p=.0457

BSL=baseline relations, SYM=symmetry, EQ=equivalence, N-ABS = node as abstract stimuli group, N-PIC = node as picture stimuli group, ABS= all abstract stimuli group.