AN INTERACTION OF INSTRUCTIONS AND TRAINING DESIGN ON STIMULUS CLASS FORMATION - EXTENDING THE ANALYSIS OF EQUIVALENCE

Our previous research with subjects with mild mental retardation indic ated different outcomes on stimulus equivalence tests when different t raining designs were employed. Subjects exposed to match-to-sample tra ining involving four pairs of sample stimuli and one pair of compariso ns (comparison as node) were more likely to show positive results on e quivalence tests than subjects trained with four pairs of comparisons and one pair of samples (sample as node). We describe three studies ai med at analyzing the superiority of the comparison-as-node training pr ocedure. The results suggest that (a) preexperimental individual diffe rences and subject assignment do not account for the previous findings , (b) the greater effectiveness of the comparison-as-node procedure ma y be caused partially by an interaction of the procedure and instructi ons providing stimulus names, and (c) differential outcomes on equival ence tests with these training procedures may be demonstrated only wit h developmentally limited subjects. Several theoretical interpretation s for the reason the comparison-as-node training method is more likely to produce positive equivalence test performances and the implication of these interpretations for understanding stimulus equivalence in ge neral are discussed.