Promoviendo fluidez y flexibilidad en comportamiento analógico en adolescentes, universitarios, y ancianos

Resumen

Analogy occupies a central place at the very heart of human cognition (Hofstadter, 2001). It has been present in theoretical reflection since ancient times. For example, we find it in the writings of Aristotle (Metaphysics, Aristotle). Analogy has been shown to be a common element across various disciplines and is a central aspect of human language. It could be said that its importance is transversal, both when it comes to its use in everyday language and when it comes to its linguistic analysis and its analysis as verbal behavior. The study of analogical behavior is important in all these areas because it is one of the most useful tools for communication between humans. Take the following example: when someone tells us that the oranges they have bought are like soccer balls, it is easy for us to visualize that the oranges are large without having to have them in front of us. In the same way when, without knowing Luis, we hear that Luis is "cinnamon stick" we can imagine that he is probably an exquisite person. If they also tell us that Luis and Carlos, whom we don't know either, are like night and day, we get the first impression that Carlos has nothing to do with Luis and that this person is everything contrary to what we understand by " be exquisite”. Logically, what we derive from what they tell us about oranges and Luis and Carlos is subject to the experience that each one of us may have of "a soccer ball" or the meaning we give to the expression "cinnamon stick ”. The affirmation of Gentner (1983) stands out, who defined this behavior as a transfer of information from a known domain to an unknown one. In other words, in the examples indicated, the information we have about the balls would have been transferred to the oranges, and the information we have about being “cinnamon sticks” would have been transferred to Luis and Carlos according to the relationship that has been specified between them. In a general way, analog behavior has been identified as an intelligent behavior signal. On the one hand, since Spearman (1923) he used items in the form of analogy (for example: "...is to sour as honey is to..." -to select lemon/sweet) that have continued to be used repeatedly in tests aimed at evaluating behavior. intelligent. On the other hand, research in the last decade has shown an increase in intelligence test scores associated with training in making relationships between elements (Vizcaíno-Torres et al, 2015). Along the same lines, there has also been evidence between levels of intelligence and the ease of establishing analogical relationships at an experimental level. However, although the studies are scarce and the results are tangential, it is possible to combine the information from both lines of work and consider what could be the effect on the level of intelligence and other measures related to intelligence, if a training is carried out. systematic in the practice of analogies of different types, that is, a fluid repertoire of making and understanding analogies is generated. That is the main question that this thesis addresses, evaluating the influence of practice in making analogies on intelligence measures among other measures. This objective will be carried out with three types of participants that differ by their evolutionary moment. More specifically, adolescents, university students, and the elderly. At the service of these objectives, Chapter 1 focuses on a brief approach to the concept of analogy and its evolution both in the field of philosophy and from psychology to end by pointing out the centrality of analogy in human language. The chapter highlights the functional psychological approach in the field of language, focusing on the Relational Frame Theory, a theory that explicitly formulates the analogy as an equivalence between characteristics of stimuli. For example, and returning to the example already mentioned, lemon is related to the sour taste in an equivalent way as honey does to the sweet taste. The information collected in this brief review shows the studies that have been carried out. On the one hand, studies oriented towards explicit training to improve fluency in relating through the keys of equality, comparison and opposition (Stewart et al, 2001; Stewart et al, 2004; Stewart, 2009). On the other, the analysis of how the practice of establishing relationships improves intelligence scores (Cassidy, 2008; O`Hara, 2008; Vizcaíno-Torres et al, 2015; Castro, 2020). The study that comes closest to the analogy experimentally is the study by Ruiz and Luciano (2011) in which it was observed that those subjects who were quicker to link networks scored higher on intelligence tests. Taking all this into consideration, one question that might be asked is whether the systematic practice of making analogies, of various types and formats, would influence the values of standardized measures of intelligence, as well as other non-standardized measures, such as tests of analogies created automatically. professed or other measures of daily activity. The objectives of the thesis were in this direction. Specifically, to design a protocol of analogies of different types (some with stimuli of linguistic content and others, with stimuli based on physical properties) and formats (selecting or producing analogies), to evaluate their effectiveness in standardized intelligence tests and other measures, in three types of participants, adolescents, college students, and elderly people. Chapter 2 presents the empirical study 1 in which the design and application of the protocol to the adolescent population is addressed. Twenty-eight adolescents participated, randomly divided into two conditions. The participants in the experimental condition completed the three phases of the study: pre-test, application of analogue flexibility and fluency training (FFA 1), and post-test. In the control condition, only the pre-test and posttest measurements were completed. The measures applied during the pre-test and the post-test were the same for both groups and consisted of two standardized intelligence tests: Verbal Reasoning Subtest of the Differential Aptitudes Test, Version 5 (DAT-5), Level 1 (Be nnet, Seashore & Wesman, 2000), and General Intelligence Test D-70 (Kowrousky, F. & Rennes, P., 1970). The qualifications of the participants in 2 school subjects were also considered: Social Sciences and Mathematics. The FFA 1 protocol was composed of multiple examples that included different relationship keys (coordination, opposition, comparison, inclusion, temporal, causal, and deictic) with selection and production response formats. All items were linguistic in this protocol. The training was organized in four blocks; each block made up of 30 examples of linguistic analogies (20 in a selective format and 20 in a productive format). Each block was applied, respectively, in four weeks, in group sessions lasting 60-90 minutes by the same experimenter. The mixed pre-post test design allowed for both intragroup and intergroup analysis. The results indicated that both the control and the experimental conditions were equivalent in the pre-test. At post-test, participants in the experimental condition showed significant increases on both standardized tests, while participants in the control condition showed a significant decrease in DAT-5 scores. The improvement in Social Science and Mathematics grades in the experimental condition was not significant. These promising, albeit limited, results correlated with improvements in intelligence scores relative to overall relational fluency. Therefore, the following study aimed to improve the protocol by adding more variety in the relational cues of the analogies with non-linguistic items (in order to minimize the impact of the pre-experimental history) and, in addition, to carry out the application directly in computer (in order to provide individualized rather than group feedback). The data from this second study are described in Chapter 3. The second study consisted of 40 students in the last year of Psychology at the University of Almería, aged between 21 and 35 years. As in the previous study, there were two conditions with 20 participants respectively, experimental and control. On this occasion, the pre-test and post-test consisted of two standardized tests: Verbal Reasoning Subtest of the Differential Aptitudes Test, Version 5 (DAT-5), Level 1 (Bennet, Seashore & Wesman, 2000), and the Similarities Subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV, Wechsler, 2012). In addition, three analogy tests were used, created expressly, and were applied on a computer. The tests used in each test were the following: test of analogies based on physical properties (PA-PropFcas), test of linguistic analogies in selective format (PA-Ling/Sel) and test of linguistic analogies in productive format (PA-Ling/ Pro). The intelligence tests were applied by an experimenter while the analogy tests were carried out on a computer. The computer program made it possible to record both the responses given by the participants and the latencies of their responses. The analogical fluency and flexibility protocol used in this second study (FFA 2) was based on Multiple Exemplar Training (MET) with three training blocks. Each block contained training trials and testing trials. In the first block, 32 training items based on physical properties and 20 test items were used. In the second block, the training was carried out with 32 items based on physical properties and 25 linguistic items in a selective format, ending again with 20 test items. In the third block, 32 items based on physical properties were used, 25 linguistic in a selective format and 25 linguistic in a productive format, ending with 20 verification items. The answers given by the participants were followed by feedback. The protocol was applied for three days in individual sessions lasting 60-90 minutes. The results obtained showed that both groups, control and experimental, were equivalent in the pre-test in all tests except the WAIS Similarity Subtest. After the application of the protocol, a significant improvement was achieved in the S-WAIS test of the experimental condition and, unlike what happened with the adolescent population, there were no significant changes with the DAT-5 test. On the other hand, in all the analogy tests the impact of the training was observed, which led them to be considered good indicators of its effectiveness as relational training. The results in university students, after those obtained in adolescents, led to extending the design and application of a protocol of these characteristics to other participants at a vital moment in which there are no previous studies of this type. In this way, the analysis of the impact of the protocol at different vital moments was completed, which allows us to have a more global vision of the possibilities offered by a protocol of these characteristics. The third empirical study is described in Chapter 4. The protocol was applied to the elderly population and its impact was evaluated through standardized intelligence instruments, among other measures. The application of the protocol at these ages is of special relevance if we take into account the growth forecast of this population in the coming years and the relationship between cognitive performance and successful aging. Ten voluntary residents of a nursing home participated in this study, with an age range of 67-89 years. Five of them were assigned to a control condition while the other five received the experimental protocol. All of them responded to five tests in the pre-test: two standardized tests (test of verbal comprehension and WAIS perceptual reasoning test) and three tests specially designed (test of analogies based on physical properties, test of linguistic analogies in selective format and test of linguistic analogies in productive format). The FFA 2 protocol was applied to the subjects of the experimental condition, completing the three training blocks already described in study 2. It is important to note that the standardized tests used in the initial evaluation were not the same as in study 2, it is In other words, in this last study the DAT-5 test was not applied and the complete WAIS tests were used instead of a subtest as in the previous study. The results of this third study coincide with those of previous studies, evidencing the improvement of the linguistic and cognitive abilities of the participants after the application of the training protocol with multiple examples, with the particularity that in this case the improvement of the analogical reasoning in a sample of elderly, who would be, in general, in a process of decline at many levels. Also noteworthy is the design of an analogy protocol that incorporates and combines the necessary conditions to improve fluency and flexibility, with different types of tasks that incorporate multiple and varied examples, with a variety of stimuli, with different relational keys (coordination, distinction , opposition, comparison, hierarchical, temporal and deictic) and with different response formats (comprehensive and productive), aspects that had not been previously used in protocols analyzed in other studies. The positive evaluation of the results does not exempt from pointing out certain limitations or weaknesses. The number of participants was small, because the access and disposition of the elderly as participants in a study of these characteristics is not without difficulties. Perhaps this is one reason to explain the scarcity of research in this area with a population of these characteristics. The non-adaptation of the items to the type of population is also considered a limitation, either due to their content or their mode of presentation. Since both study 2 and study 3 were performed quasi-synchronously, the protocols are the same. The main conclusions of these 3 studies are collected in Chapter 5. In the first place, the contributions of the thesis that are related, on the one hand, to the designs of fluency and flexibility protocols, their variety of items, stimuli, as well as keys and formats do not exist together to date. Its presentation is also valued through a computer program that avoids biases in the application of feedback by the experimenter while facilitating the application and collection of information. On the other hand, the choice of intelligence tests according to the type of behavior that could be influenced by the protocols is also indicated. In addition, the design of new tests that are sensitive to the protocol. The methodological strengths of the study are described both in terms of the type of participants and the pre-post design itself, with the arrangement of variables both at the intragroup and intergroup level, allowing to observe the effects not only comparatively with other subjects who have not gone through the experimental condition but in the subject himself from his initial point of departure. Secondly, the most relevant limitations of the protocols designed both at the level of the linguistic items and based on physical properties, as well as at the level of their sequential organization, are detailed. Thirdly, the possible applications of the research are analyzed both in the educational field to improve students' reasoning, and when it comes to limiting, stopping or reducing the cognitive deterioration associated with certain ages. It ends with proposals for future studies that are aimed at refining the protocol, replicating it in different conditions, and analyzing the partial effect of the different levels of the protocol. In conclusion, it should be noted that these three studies contribute to the design of an analogical fluency and flexibility protocol that has been tested with a positive impact on improving analogical reasoning in populations at different times of life. New possibilities are opened for working with analogy protocols in different presentation formats, with different stimuli and relationship keys. Both its feasibility and the advisability of basic and applied research going hand in hand have been revealed so that the impact is both in controlled and natural contexts. Finally, these studies join many others of functional equivalence, in this case, of relating relationships, a higher level of complexity (Törneke et al., 2016) which, in this case, has analogical practice as a reference, becoming in yet another example of the importance of developing applied studies based on relational behavior (Hayes, Barnes-Holmes & Roche, 2001).