Kj. Saunders et al., AN INTERACTION OF INSTRUCTIONS AND TRAINING DESIGN ON STIMULUS CLASS FORMATION - EXTENDING THE ANALYSIS OF EQUIVALENCE, The Psychological record, 43(4), 1993, pp. 725-744
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.