COMPOUND STIMULI IN EMERGENT STIMULUS RELATIONS - EXTENDING THE SCOPEOF STIMULUS EQUIVALENCE

Three experiments were conducted to investigate stimulus relations tha t might emerge when college students are taught relations between comp ound sample stimuli and unitary comparison stimuli using match-to-samp le procedures. In Experiment 1, subjects were taught nine AB-C stimulu s relations, then tested for the emergence of 18 AC-B and BC-A relatio ns. All subjects showed the emergence of all tested relations. Twelve subjects participated in Experiment 2. Six subjects were taught nine A B-C relations and were then tested for symmetrical (C-AB) relations. S ix subjects were taught nine AB-C and three C-D relations and were the n tested for nine AB-D (transitive) relations. Five of 6 subjects demo nstrated the emergence of symmetrical relations, and 6 subjects showed the emergence of transitivity. In Experiment 3, 5 college students we re taught nine AB-C and three C-D relations and were then tested for n ine equivalence (D-AB) relations and 18 AD-B and BD-A relations. Three subjects demonstrated all tested relations. One subject demonstrated the AD-B and BD-A relations but not the D-AB relations. One subject di d not respond systematically during testing. The results of these expe riments extend stimulus equivalence research to more complex cases.