Categorização Emergente com Ideogramas Chineses

Abstract

The dissertation focused on the experimental investigation of the emergence of equivalence relations and categorization among ten university students, utilizing Chinese ideograms as stimuli. In this perspective, the research aimed to systematically replicate previous investigations, proposing an alternative approach by employing the ideograms used in Clark Hull's classic study instead of the previously used paintings. The main objective was to analyze whether the participants would simultaneously establish relations of equivalence and categorization with the aforementioned stimuli, aiming to understand if the results presented in the literature regarding emergent categorization would extend to graphic stimuli. The experimental design consisted of applying a conditional discrimination procedure called matching-to-sample (MTS), in which participants were asked to choose one stimulus among three comparisons after the presentation of a model stimulus, with the correct choice being reinforced. The results showed a consistent pattern of significantly higher-than-chance accuracy in 75% of cases, with notable differences in responses to familiar versus unfamiliar stimuli and a heterogeneity in individual responses that, nevertheless, reflected a collective average accuracy indicative of the training effect on test performance. The study may contribute to understanding the fundamental processes of categorization and symbolic behavior in educational contexts, with relevant implications for the teaching and learning of foreign languages, such as Chinese.