ENHANCING EQUIVALENCE CLASS FORMATION BY PRETRAINING OF OTHER EQUIVALENCE CLASSES

This study investigated how the learning of one set of equivalence cla sses enhances the learning of new equivalence classes. Fifty-two under graduate students were divided into four groups. Subjects in Group 1 r eceived no pretraining. Using the simple-to-complex procedure followed by incremental expansion of class size, subjects in Groups 2, 3, and 4 learned 3-, 4-, and 5-member equivalence classes, respectively. Afte r pretraining, two new 3-member equivalence classes were established b y the concurrent training of all baseline relations and the concurrent presentation of all emergent relations probes to assess class formati on (the simultaneous protocol). With no pretraining, 58% of subjects f ormed the new classes under the simultaneous protocol. After pretraini ng of the 3-, 4-, and 5-member classes, the new classes were formed by 62, 85, and 100% of the subjects, respectively. Pretraining of 4- and 5-member classes produced a small increment in the percentage of subj ects who showed the immediate emergence of the new classes. Pretrainin g of the 5-member classes produced a large increment in percentage of subjects who formed classes with repeated testing. Thus, pretraining i nfluenced immediate and delayed emergence of equivalence classes. With no pretraining, during the tests used to assess the formation of the new classes, 12% of subjects showed disruption of baseline performance s, relational responding produced by symmetry probes was lower than th at produced by baseline relations, and very low levels of relational r esponding were evoked by 1-node probes. These data demonstrated the ef fects of nodal distance. Pretraining did not ameliorate the disruption of baseline performances. Pretraining of 4- and 5-member classes prod uced moderate increments in the relational responding evoked by symmet ry probes. Pretraining of 5-member classes produced large increments i n the relational responding evoked by 1-node probes.