Substitution of perceptual functions.

摘要

The present study examined the process of stimulus substitution directly. Previous research had demonstrated substitution, but only indirectly in the context of other processes. This study aimed to explore a means of capturing substitution of non-linguistic perceptual functions without awareness, using homophone words. Sixty-four participants were exposed to a series of observational training trials. By using a respondent-type training procedure nine letters were paired with a word, four of them homophones to numbers. Consequently, the participants were exposed to a series of simple mathematical problems in which they were required to replace the unknown of the equation with a number from 1 to 9. A questionnaire was presented at the end of the experiment, in which participants were required to write the number they had selected for each of the key letters and provide an explanation for their selection of this number. The results were analyzed in terms of concordance between the number and the correspondent homophone word that was trained in an earlier trial. Significant differences were found between the Experimental and Control groups in two of the four homophone numbers. All participants that showed consistent responding on their selection of the homophone numbers reported the homophone relations in the questionnaire. Recommendations for future research are discussed.