EMERGENT CLASS FORMATIONS AFTER TRAINING PROCEDURE USING SEPARATION AND RECOMBINATION OF COMPOUND STIMULI

Abstract

Two studies taught college students to discriminate compound stimuli and assessed the emergence of equivalence classes using two different test procedures. In both studies, compound stimuli were presented in simple simultaneous discrimination (SSD) training and the emergence of equivalence classes was tested using both SSD and matching so sample procedures. The studies differed in the number of classes trained/tested. In Experiment 1, four out of nine participants showed the emergence of transitive and equivalence relations. In Experiment 2, all five participants showed the emergence of all relations tested. There was no difference in the results as a function of test type. The results provide empirical support for the notion that elements of a compound stimulus can be separated and recombined without disruption in discriminative control. Key-words: Simple simultaneous discrimination, compound stimuli, emergence of arbitrary relations, undergraduate students.