The Psychological Record, 1991, 41, 33-50

SOCIAL CATEGORIZATION AND STIMULUS EQUIVALENCE

ANDREW WATT, MICHAEL KEENAN, DERMOT BARNES, and ED CAIRNS
University of Ulster at Coleraine
Northern Irish Protestant subjects, Northern Irish Catholic
subjects, and English Protestant subjects were taught a series of
conditional discriminations using a matching-to-sample
procedure. In the presence of Northern Irish Catholic names,
subjects were trained to select three-letter nonsense syllables,
and in the presence of the nonsense syllables subjects were
trained to select Northern Irish Protestant symbols. Subjects were
then tested to determine whether the Protestant symbols and
Catholic names had become related through symmetry and
transitivity. A generalization test was employed to allow for a
preliminary investigation of the transfer of experimentally
generated equivalence responding to untrained, socially loaded
names. Preliminary findings suggest that prior social learning
might interfere with equivalence responding. The relevance of
these results to the theoretical interpretation of the equivalence
phenomenon and to social attitude measurement in general is
discussed.
During the past 20 years of "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland, the
processes of "Telling" (correctly identifying the denominational origin of
others) and of "Taking Sides" have been the center of considerable
attention for social scientists (Cairns, 1989). Contemporary explanations
involve elaborate interactive models to account for the development and
maintenance of distinct social identities. One such theory currently
generating considerable interest is the Social Identity Theory (SIT) of
Tajfel (1978).
Tajfel states that the existence of highly distinct group social
identities is essential for the development of a perpetual state of
animosity between two groups. Put simply, Tajfel argues that the
tendency to categorize people and objects is a normal strategy
employed by people to reduce the complexity of their social worlds.
This research was supported by a grant awarded to M. Keenan and E. Cairns by the
Garfield Weston Trust. Contributions from Andrew Watt were in partial fulfillment of the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Ulster, at Coleraine. Requests for
reprints should be sent to any author of this article, Department of Psychology, University
of Ulster, Coleraine, County Derry, N. Ireland, BT52 1SA.
RELER ESTE ARTIGO
34 WATT ET AL.
SOCIAL CATEGORIZATION 35
However, he points out that this also heightens the perceived differences
between groups and exaggerates the similarities within groups, thus
maximizing the extent of intragroup coherence and increasing the
probability that perceived intergroup differences can become a source of
conflict. Tajfel's theory also proposes that, just as individuals classify
others, they also categorize themselves. He postulates that individuals
have a marked tendency to strive to enhance the image of themselves.
One way to do this is by enhancing their image of the group to which
they belong relative to that of the "other" group. However, it is suggested
that this process contributes to the emergence and perpetuation of
conflict in relatively small, enclosed communities where the opportunity
to change one's social identity is restricted (cf. Tajfel, 1978).
From a behavioral perspective, Tajfel's SIT theory may provide
insight into the likely sources and forms of reinforcement (e.g., the verbal
behavior of other members of the same social group) for social
categorization. However, substantial differences exist between social
psychological and behavioristic approaches in the underlying
epistemology that guides the direction of investigation. Consider, for
example, a typical social psychological experiment in which a subject is
asked to tell whether a "stereotyped" face should be rated as either
Catholic or Protestant (see Cairns, 1980, 1983; O'Donnell, 1977;
Stringer, 1984). In such an experiment, aspects of the relations between
the stimuli and responses have already been trained in the social
context. Consequently the researcher focuses upon the end products of
the processes of social categorization, rather than on the processes
themselves. A behavioral analysis would consider the identification of
these processes to be the main object of enquiry. In other words, instead
of inferring behavioral processes on the basis of purely predictive data, it
would be more illuminating to induce them directly in an experimental
setting.
This goal may be attained by the employment of relevant procedures
that have already been developed in the study of "stimulus equivalence."
This phenomenon helps to account for the emergence of novel behavior
in the context of the conditional discrimination procedure known as
matching-to-sample (Catania, 1984; Sidman & Tailby, 1982). Specifically,
when language-able humans are taught a number of conditional
discriminations, the stimuli often become related in untrained ways. For
instance, when a person is taught to match A to B and then A to C, it is
likely that the person will also match B to A, C to A (symmetry), B to C,
and C to B (combined symmetry and transitivity) without any further
training. This has been called "stimulus equivalence," and the stimuli are
said to have formed "equivalence classes."
Researchers have also demonstrated that the discriminative
functions of one member of an equivalence class can transfer, without
explicit training, to other members of the class (Barnes & Keenan, 1989;
Wulfert & Hayes, 1988). In other words, if a subject is trained to match A
to B and A to C, and is then reinforced for emitting a specific response in
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the presence of B, it is likely that the subject will also emit that response
in the presence of C, without being reinforced for doing so.
Usually in these studies, the stimuli used are arbitrary and there is
no systematic relation between them in terms of physical dimensions:
"What is brought to bear in a given instance of arbitrarily applicable
relational responding is a history applicable to the given situation"
(Hayes, in press). Given that behavior in these settings stems from
manipulatable antecedent histories, the employment of socially pertinent
stimuli might uncover the principles which determine characteristic
responding to particular categories of social stimuli.
The Northern Irish situation provides an ideal setting for the
development and application of procedures based on this stated
rationale. The people of Northern Ireland use a wide variety of
information in order to identify and categorize the sectarian alignment of
others (cf. Cairns, 1980). Perhaps the simplest way that this is done is
by obtaining a person's name because in Northern Ireland these are
arranged in near mutually exclusive Catholic and Protestant name
clusters showing very little cross over (cf. Cairns, 1984).
The organization of a group of beliefs or attitudes relating to an
individual might emerge in the following way. If a person is confronted
for the very first time with an individual called Sean, and has lived in a
community where the name Sean is positively related with a Catholic
context and Catholic is positively related with terrorism, then the
behavioral principle of stimulus equivalence makes it likely that Sean
and terrorism are seen as equivalent stimuli. This behavioral
interpretation suggests that responding to a stimulus can depend on its
relationship to other "socially loaded stimuli" rather than on a history of
direct reinforcement with the pertinent stimulus in question.
The present experiment was designed in order to determine whether
social categorization could be examined usefully within the stimulus
equivalence paradigm. Because the simultaneous presentation of
Protestant and Catholic stimuli during the training phase of the
experiment might alert subjects to the oppositional nature of the stimuli,
a nonstandard equivalence procedure was employed. Subjects were first
trained to relate three Catholic names to three nonsense syllables and
subsequently to relate the nonsense syllables to three Protestant
symbols. Intermittent reinforcement was introduced during the training
phase so that the absence of feedback during testing was not in stark
contrast to training. This was a standard stimulus equivalence training
procedure. However, during the test phase a novel Protestant name was
introduced as one of the three comparison stimuli. In order to circumvent
some of the interpretive limitations arising from this nonstandard
procedure, subjects' religious affiliations and nationalities were obtained
and the data was organized according to group membership. Finally, three
novel names (Catholic, Protestant, and neutral) were employed for a
"generalization" test in order to further examine the extent to which prior
social training affects subjects' performance in the experimental setting.
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36 WATTET AL. SOCIAL CATEGORIZATION 37
Method
Subjects
Twenty three University of Ulster undergraduate and postgraduate
students volunteered to serve as subjects. The religious affiliation and
nationality of each subject was determined on the basis of the subjects'
responses to the following questions: (1) "Do you consider yourself to be
Protestant or Catholic?" and (2) "Are you from Northern Ireland or
England?" These questions were presented to each subject at the end of
the experimental session. Twelve subjects were Northern Irish Catholics,
six were Northern Irish Protestants, and five were English Protestants.
Apparatus
Subjects were seated at a table in a small experimental room with an
Acorn Computer Limited, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Model B
microcomputer with a Cumana (Model CS400) floppy disk drive and a
Kaga Denshi (Model KG-12NB-N) computer monitor which displayed green
characters on a black background. Stimulus presentations and the
recording of responses were controlled by the computer which was
programmed in BBC BASIC. The Catholic, Protestant, and neutral names
were taken from Stringer (1984). The rationale for the selection of the
Protestant symbols is outlined in the Appendix.
Instructions and Pretraining
The experimental sequence was divided into three stages: (a)
training with continuous reinforcement, (b) training with intermittent
reinforcement, and (c) testing.
Subjects were presented with either a nonsense syllable or a first
and last name in the top center of the monitor screen (the "sample"
stimulus). Three "comparison" stimuli were displayed approximately 3
inches below this and were each separated by 2 inches across the
screen. Subjects were instructed at the start of the experiment that they
had to select a comparison stimulus by pressing one of three designated
keys. These keys were marked as left (Z), middle (V), and right (M), and
they corresponded to the relative positions of the comparison stimuli.
At the beginning of the experiment the following text appeared on
screen:
In this experiment you will be shown an item at the top of the
screen along with 3 items below it. Your task is to learn which of
these items goes with the one at the top of the screen.
Press the SPACE BAR to continue.
After the subjects pressed the space bar the following appeared on
the screen:
JEAN
KAQ YUH QAS
For example, here your choices are either 'KAQ', 'YUH', or 'QAS'.
You choose one that goes with 'JEAN'. In other words, when 'JEAN'
is displayed you choose one item from the three displayed below.
You choose by pressing one of three keys on the keyboard.
Z LEFT
V CENTRE
M RIGHT
Try pressing one of these keys now and see what happens.
Subjects were exposed to this single task for four trials so that they
would be familiarized with the matching-to-sample procedure (the details
of the matching-to-sample procedure will be outlined below). None of the
four stimuli used in the pretraining task were employed in the actual
experiment. After the four pretraining trials, the monitor screen cleared
and the following instructions appeared.
If you have any questions please ask the experimenter now.
Type 'BEGIN' when you are ready to start the experiment, and
then hit the RETURN key.
When subjects typed BEGIN the training phase of the experiment
commenced. The stimuli employed in the experiment are presented in
Table 1.
Experimental Sequence
Stage 1: Training with continuous reinforcement. In this stage, the
trained relations depicted in Table 1 were established using continuous
reinforcement. Training began with one of three Catholic names
randomly chosen to serve as the sample stimulus. Beneath this, the
three nonsense syllables served as comparison stimuli and they were
arranged in a random order across the screen. (This was so for all
presentations of comparison stimuli throughout the experiment). After a
correct response (e.g., selecting ZID in the presence of Brendan
Doherty), the screen cleared and the word "CORRECT" appeared on the
screen; this was accompanied by a 3-s high pitched tone. When
subjects responded incorrectly, the word "WRONG" appeared instead
and it was accompanied by a 3-s low pitched tone. (The nature of this
feedback was consistent across all stages of the experiment.)
The next sample stimulus was randomly chosen from the two
remaining Catholic names and the nonsense syllables again served as
comparison stimuli. Finally, the remaining Catholic name was used as
the sample stimulus and it was also accompanied by the nonsense
syllables as comparison stimuli.
Jl
38
39
WATT ET AL.
Table 1
Matching-to-Sample Training
Train Catholic names Train nonsense syllables
to nonsense syllables to Protestant symbols
BRENDAN
DOHERTY
/
zio YIM VEK
/
LAMBEG
DRUM
liD
UNION ORANGE
JACK ORDER
SEAMUS
QUINN
I
liD YIM VEK
LAMBEG
DRUM
YIM
I
UNION ORANGE
JACK ORDER
\
zio YIM VEK
PATRICK
O'HAGAN
LAMBEG
DRUM
VEK
\
UNION ORANGE
JACK ORDER
Note: Solid lines represent trained relations.
When two successive cycles of this combination of sample and
comparison stimuli had been correctly completed, the second part of
Stage 1 commenced. Here the sample stimuli were selected from the list
of nonsense syllables, and the comparison stimuli were selected from
the list of Protestant symbols. The manner in which the sample stimuli
were selected was the same as that described for the first half of this
stage. Similarly, two successive cycles of this new combination of
sample and comparison stimuli had to be successfully completed before
transition to the next part of the experiment.
Stage 2: Training with intermittent reinforcement. At the onset of this
stage subjects were informed that they would not always be told whether
their responses were correct or not. The following text appeared on
screen:
In the next stage of the study you will not always be told if your
response is right or wrong.
To continue with the experiment type 'GO' and then hit the
RETURN key.
In fact, feedback ("CORRECT" or "WRONG") was given for only
50% of responses. The stimulus combinations described in Stage 1
were all presented in random order during this condition. Each stimulus
combination was presented twice and if less than 100% of responses
SOCIAL CATEEGORllATION
were correct, the procedure reverted back to the start of Stage 1. It was
possible for each subject to restart the training three times before being
asked to terminate the session and come back another day. If
performance efficiency was 100% then the next stage began
immediately.
Stage 3: Testing. No feedback was given to any subjects for any
items during the test stage. Ten presentations of each of the stimulus
combinations from Stage 1 were randomly presented. Randomly
interspersed with these were ten presentations each of six other
stimulus combinations. These 'novel' arrangements were grouped into
two categories and are shown in Table 2. The stimuli in the left-hand
column were arranged as a combined test of symmetry and transitivity
between Protestant symbols and Catholic names. Each of the three
Table 2
Test Stimulus Presentations
(1 ) LAMBEG (4) LAMBEG
DRUM DRUM
-
BRENDAN WILLIAM PATRICK EAMON ROBERT ILYA
DOHERTY SMITH O'HAGAN MCALEER SCOTT GALAKOV
(2) UNION
_ JACK
(5) UNION
JACK
-
SEAMUS GEORGE PATRICK EAMON ROBERT ILYA
QUINN THOMPSON O'HAGAN MCALEER SCOTT GALAKOV
(3) ORANGE
_ ORDER
(6) ORANGE
ORDER
PATRICK BILLY BRENDAN EAMON ROBERT ILYA
O'HAGAN WILSON DOHERTY MCALEER SCOTT GALAKOV
Note. Broken lines represent expected emergent relations.
Protestant symbols served as sample stimuli and two of the Catholic
names served as comparison stimuli; one each of the Catholic names
provided the combined test for symmetrical and transitive responding.
An additional Protestant name was included as a comparison stimulus
for each of these three combinations of sample and comparison stimuli.
This was done in order to determine the extent to which prior social
learning could interfere with equivalence responding.
The right-hand column of Table 2 shows the three other stimulus
combinations presented during this stage. This generalization test was
employed to allow for a preliminary exploration of the transfer of
experimentally generated equivalence responding to other socially
i
40
41
WAITETAL.
pertinent stimuli. Again the Protestant symbols served as sample stimuli,
but this time the same three new names served as comparison stimuli.
Each of these names was either Catholic (Eamon McAleer), Protestant
(Robert Scott), or neutral (llya Galakov) within the Northern Irish context.
Verbal reports were not collected systematically, but many of the
subjects voluntarily offered comments after completing the experiment.
These reports were noted by the experimenter.
Results
Those subjects whose results predominantly reflected "expected
equivalence responding" in accordance with the training regime were
classified as "PASS," whereas those subjects who predominantly
selected the novel Protestant names instead of the expected Catholic
names were classified as "FAIL." This classification, in conjunction with
ethnic origin and religious affiliation, provided four major groupings for all
subjects; subjects were renumbered for ease of exposition. The results
are presented in Figures 1-4.
Figure 1 shows the results for N. Irish Protestants who generally
failed to show equivalence responding. Except for Subject S4, who
showed equivalence responding in the presence of LAMBEG DRUM
(i.e., selecting Brendan Doherty), all subjects consistently chose the
novel Protestant name in the presence of each sample stimulus (upper
panels). This Protestant-Protestant link also appeared when three novel
names were used as comparison stimuli (lower panels). The one
Protestant-Catholic link which appeared for S4 did not transfer to the
generalization test.
Of the five N. Irish Catholics classified as "FAIL" all but S8 showed a
strong tendency to choose the novel Protestant name (William Smith) in
the presence of LAMBEG DRUM (Figure 2, upper panels). The failure to
show equivalence responding was more consistent across subjects
during the other two sample stimuli. The lower panels of Figure 2 show a
similar generalized Protestant-Catholic link for S8 in the presence of
LAM BEG DRUM to that found for S4. Apart from this, Protestant
Protestant links were generally found to be the case for all subjects.
Figure 3 (top panels) shows the equivalence responding for N. Irish
Catholics classified as "PASS." The relative incidence of choosing the
expected Catholic name was very high for all subjects during all
samples, except for S14 and S15 in the presence of UNION JACK. The
lower panels of Figure 3 show a greater variety of responses than that
seen in the previous two figures. Only one subject (S17) consistently
preferred Protestant-Protestant links during all sample stimuli. The other
subjects often distributed their responses across all three names.
Figure 4 shows the results for English Protestant subjects classified
as "PASS." Equivalence responding predominated for all subjects during
the three sample stimuli (upper panels). When novel comparison stimuli
were used subjects generally failed to respond consistently.
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Figure 2. The number of times each comparison stimulus was selected in the presence of each sample stimulus for Subjects S7-S11. Percentage
values shown at the bottom of the figure indicate the percentage efficiency obtained for each subject on the concurrently presented training stimuli.
Top panels: The number of responses to the comparison stimuli during the combined test of symmetry and transitivity. These stimuli are
presented below the corresponding sample stimuli shown in brackets.
Bottom panels: The number of responses to the three novel comparison stimuli which were presented below the sample stimuli shown in
brackets above.
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(LAMBEG DRUM) (UNION JACK) (ORANGE ORDER)
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Figure 3. The number of times each comparison stimulus was selected in the presence of each sample stimulus for Subjects S12-S18. Percentage
values shown at the bottom of the figure indicate the percentage efficiency obtained for each subject on the concurrently presented training stimuli.
Top panels: The number of responses to the comparison stimuli during the combined test of symmetry and transitivity. These stimuli are
presented below the corresponding sample stimuli shown in brackets.
Bottom panels: The number of responses to the three novel comparison stimuli which were presented below the sample stimuli shown in
brackets above. ti
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44 WATT ET AL. SOCIAL CATEGORIZATION 45
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Discussion
The five main findings in the present study were:
1. Six Northern Irish Protestants and five Northern Irish Catholics
tended to choose a Protestant name in the presence of a Protestant
symbol, thereby failing to respond in accordance with expected
equivalence relations. The fact that these subjects made Protestant
Protestant links indicates that equivalence did not merely fail to emerge.
Rather, this finding suggests that the use of previously trained social
stimuli might have suppressed equivalence responding.
2. All five English subjects and seven Northern Irish Catholic
subjects chose the Catholic names, related through symmetry and
transitivity, to Protestant symbols, thereby suggesting equivalence class
formation.
3. Those Northern Irish Protestants and Catholics who failed the
equivalence tests reliably chose Protestant names in the presence of
Protestant symbols during the generalization test.
4. All English subjects and those Northern Irish Catholics who
passed the equivalence test tended to show a higher degree of
variability, compared to the fail groups, in their choices during the
generalization test.
5. Those Northern Irish subjects who volunteered verbal reports
indicated that they saw the appropriate symbols and names as either
Protestant or Catholic. The English subjects, however, failed to identify
any of the symbols or names as either Protestant or Catholic.
One criticism of the current study might be that the standard
equivalence test was not employed. The standard procedure for testing
for equivalence would involve presenting the three stimuli used as
samples during Stage 1 training (i.e., Brendan Doherty, Seamus Quinn,
and Patrick O'Hagan) as comparisons during the combined test for
symmetry and transitivity. Thus, it could be argued that subjects might
have been responding during the test on the basis of stimuli used during
Stage 1 training versus stimuli not used during Stage 1 training .
However, comparison, of English subjects' data with that of Northern
Irish fails, suggests that subjects' preexperimental classes are reflected
in performance in the experimental setting if the stimuli used in the
experiment are members of those preexperimental classes. Moreover,
S4 (Protestant Northern Irish fail) responded equivalently (i.e., 80%)
during test presentations of Lambeg drum with Brendan Doherty and
subsequently asked at the end of the experiment "What is a Lambeg
drum?" This finding supports the idea that at least some Northern Irish
subjects were not responding solely to novel stimuli, but on the basis of
the preexperimentally established relationships between Catholic and
Protestant names and Protestant symbols.
Within the context of the literature on stimulus equivalence, these
findings represent a major departure from what has usually been
observed. In those reported cases where equivalence responding has


II
46
47
WATT ET AL.
most often failed to emerge, the subjects have been either nonhumans
(Sidman, Rauzin, Lazar, Cunningham, Tailby, & Carrigan, 1982) or
language-disabled humans (Devany, Hayes, & Nelson, 1986). In the
present study, however, we have demonstrated that previously
established behavioral relations might interfere with the emergence of
equivalence in language-able, adult humans. This is perhaps a new
direction for the study of the equivalence phenomenon. For example,
considerable attention has been paid to the identification of the general
level of Iinquistic competence required for the emergence of stimulus
equivalence (e.g., Dugdale & Lowe, in press; Mcintire, Cleary, &
Thompson, 1987). In the light of the present findings, however, it would
appear that even verbally advanced, university undergraduates, from a
particular social context, can fail to show equivalence responding with
socially loaded stimuli. This finding highlights the importance of always
ensuring that reference to both the past and present contexts are
incorporated into the experimental analysis of behavior (see, Barnes,
1989; Barnes & Keenan, 1989).
A Relational Contrallnterpretation
At a purely descriptive level, the present study suggests that the
employment of socially trained stimuli might suppress the emergence of
equivalence responding in the experimental context. At a more
theoretical level, however, the present procedures and results might be
relevant to a recent interpretation of stimulus equivalence in terms of
relational control (for a detailed discussion of this, and other
interpretations of the equivalence phenomenon, see Hayes, in press).
There are two central tenets to Hayes' relational control theory. Firstly,
responding can be brought to bear on any set of relata, regardless of the
physical properties of the relata involved. Secondly, equivalence is the
outcome of a particular history. It is a relational network formed by arbitrarily
applicable relational responding within the context of the relational frame of
"sameness" or "coordination." Steele (1987) has systematically analyzed
the independent roles of the relational frames of coordination,
oppositeness, and distinction in the control of human behavior on a
matching-to-sample task. Specifically, Steele pretrained an experimental
group of subjects to relate "same" stimuli (e.g., a long line with a long line)
in the presence of one contextual cue, "opposite" stimuli (e.g., a short line
with a long line) in the presence of a second contextual cue, and "distinct"
stimuli (e.g., a line with a square) in the presence of a third contextual cue.
Following this pretraining, subjects were trained in an extensive network of
conditional discriminations. Each conditional discrimination was made in
the presence of one of the three contextual cues employed during
pretraining. During testing three different kinds of performance emerged,
each of which corresponded perfectly to the three relational frames of
coordination, oppositeness, and distinction. A control group of subjectswho
did not receive the pretraining produced patterns of responding which were
very different fromthose of the experimental group.
SOCIAL CATEGORIZATION
Within the social context of the Northern Irish conflict, the Protestant
and Catholic stimuli used here may have been seen by Northern Irish
subjects as opposites, whereas the neutral name may have been seen
as distinct. Presumably, English subjects did not respond in this way to
these stimuli. The anecdotal verbal reports obtained from some of the
SUbjects certainly support this suggestion. On the basis of prior social
training, therefore, Northern Irish subjects who failed might have been
responding in accordance with the relational frame of coordination (i.e.,
Protestant symbols with Protestant names), and those Northern Irish
subjects who passed, might have been responding in accordance with
the relational frame of oppositeness (i.e., Protestant symbols with
Catholic names). Although the English subjects would have been
responding in accordance with coordination, this would have been on
the basis of the experimental training only.
If the preceding analysis is correct, then one might expect three
specific outcomes during the generalization test:
1. Those Northern Irish subjects who failed should choose novel
Protestant names in the presence of Protestant symbols.
2. Those Northern Irish SUbjects who passed should choose novel
Catholic names in the presence of Protestant symbols.
3. English subjects should respond inconsistently in the presence of
novel Catholic and Protestant names.
Predictions 1 and 3 were upheld. The Northern Irish subjects who
passed, however, tended to respond inconsistently during the
generalization test.
,
The unexpected outcome in terms of Prediction 2 might have arisen
because the relational frame of oppositeness had been brought to bear
through equivalence relations (i.e., via a nonsense syllable) with only
three different stimulus sets. This is in marked contrast to the large
number of explicitly trained oppositeness, coordination, and distinction
pretraining trials employed by Steele (1987). Perhaps if Steele's
! ~
' \ ~ pretraining procedure was employed using Catholic and Protestant
names, oppositeness responding might generalize to novel Catholic and
Protestant stimuli for Northern Irish subjects.
The highly consistent Protestant-Protestant relations, made during
, < ~ ,
,
..
the equivalence and generalization tests by those Northern Irish subjects
who failed, should alert us to the possibility that relational responding in
.J
terms of coordination could be of a greater strength for these subjects
:-1'
than responding in accordance with oppositeness. If this were a general
phenomenon, then the Northern Irish subjects who passed should have
responded in accordance with the relational frame of coordination during
the generalization test. The fact that this was not the case suggests that
a history of oppositeness responding might have interfered with
coordination.
In summary, it should be noted that the present study was not
" ~ ~ ;
I
.j{' designed to test the relational control theory of stimulus equivalence .
Nevertheless, viewing the current data from the relational control
.... \
'I,
r:,._.,
!
i.
I
.
.
,'
.
.: '
48
49 WATT ET AL.
perspective provides us with a sound conceptual foundation for the
identification and manipulation of the types of experimental history
responsible for categorizing people into various social groups.
Ethical Concerns in Attitude Measurement
The measurement of attitudes in Northern Ireland is a difficult and
often frustrated endeavor. Reluctance (particularly from adults) to
express attitudes towards sectarian issues has been widely observed
(cf. Cairns, 1987). Such difficulties are compounded by ethical problems
that arise when the application of traditional "direct" test measures to
children is considered. Researchers fear introducing naive children to
the violent aspects of their culture. Consequently, the development of
social identities in Northern Ireland is a neglected area of research.
Some researchers, however, have developed covert nondirective
means of measuring Northern Irish peoples' sensitivity to the
arrangement of stimuli drawn from their social environment. These
procedures rely consistently on the fact that these stimuli are already
trained. This effectively leaves the researcher with little or no access to
the learning processes involved in the production of individual results.
In the interests of providing greater access there is a need for a
procedure that is both sensitive to the existent social categorization and
which allows for control over learning processes within the experimental
context. Results from the current study suggest that the present
procedures may provide experimental techniques that are ideal for this
purpose.
Conclusion
The design of the current study may be regarded as in some way
arbitrary. For example, there are many possible permutations for
presenting stimuli during test phases (e.g., mixed or blocked trials).
Despite this, the novelty of the procedures outlined here are attractive
for two central reasons. Firstly, the theoretical perspective and empirical
findings in the area of stimulus equivalence and relational control theory
may provide the social scientist with a laboratory analogue of social
categorization in which a subject's history of relational responding can
be controlled. Secondly, the general procedure is infinitely flexible in that
socially relevant stimuli can be presented in written, pictorial, or verbal
forms. Furthermore, the procedure is sufficiently covert to obviate any
problems of an ethical nature.
References
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SOCIAL CATEGORIZATION
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DOWNING, T. (1980). "The Troubles: The background to the question of
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FOSTER, R. F. (1988). Modern Ireland: 1600-1972. London: Allen Lane.
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HAYES, S. C. (in press). A relational control theory of stimulus equivalence. In L.
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MCINTIRE, K. D., CLEARY, J., & THOMPSON, 1. (1987). Conditional relations
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O'DONNELL, E. E. (1977). Northern Irish stereotypes. Dublin College of
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SIDMAN, M., RAUZIN, R., LAZAR, R., CUNNINGHAM, S., TAILBY, W., &
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Appendix
The conflict in Northern Ireland is roughly 300 years old. However, this
conflict has not always been characterized by intergroup violence. Rather, its
long history is typically punctuated with intense short periods of "blood-letting."
The current "round of the troubles" is proving to be an exception to this general
pattern. It can be seen to have begun in 1969 with the movement of British
troops onto the streets of Northern Ireland (this can be credibly contested,
however this event is a convenient landmark).
We have seen the twentieth anniversary of the troubles come and go. More
than 2,600 deaths can be directly attributed to this conflict, and there is still no
sign of its termination by any means, be they political, economic, social, or
military. All sides appear to have their heels as firmly dug in as ever, and any
political moves aimed at reconciliation seem to stimulate yet more sectarian
posturing.
One of the most visible aspects of the divide in Northern Ireland is the way
in which people readily align themselves with the symbols and trappings of
various "political" organizations and "religious/political" orders. The "Orange
Order" is a widely recognized Protestant example of the latter, and therefore was
included in the current study as a Protestant symbol.
The people of Northern Ireland rally to physical emblems, particularly at
times of heightened sectarian awareness. The Union Jack (the national flag of
the United Kingdom) functions as such for the Protestant community, and the
Tricolour (the national flag of the Republic of Ireland) functions in much the same
way for the Catholic (Nationalist) community. Both of these stimuli function as
highly pertinent stimuli in the Catholic-Protestant divide, so much so, that one
can tell which group predominates in an area by the color of the curbstones on
their streets (i.e., red, white, and blue in Protestant areas; and green, white, and
gold in Catholic areas). For this reason Union Jack was used as a Protestant
symbol in the current study.
Finally, the Lambeg Drum is probably virtually unknown outside of Northern
Ireland. A Lambeg Drumis an enlargedversion of a bass drumwhich is playedwith
a hard stick and is almost always unveiled for and played on special occasions,
such as "The glorious Twelfth" of July. This day is regardedas the central day of the
Protestant marching season and is celebrated to commemorate the defeat of the
Catholic forces of James II by the Protestantforces of William III, at the battle of the
Boyne in 1690. The drum is derived from a battle drum which served both to
coordinatetroops in the field and to intimidateopposition.
Those who may want to know more about the Northern Irish situation are
referred to Beckett (1981), Connolly (1983), Downing (1980), Foster (1988),
Kee (1982), and Lyons (1971).