COMPOUND STIMULI IN EMERGENT STIMULUS RELATIONS: EXTENDING THE SCOPE OF STIMULUS EQUIVALENCE

Three experiments were conducted to investigate stimulus relations that might emerge when college students are taught relations between compound sample stimuli and unitary comparison stimuli using match‐to‐sample procedures. In Experiment 1, subjects were taught nine AB‐C stimulus relations, then te...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior 1993-11, Vol.60 (3), p.529-542
Main Authors: Markham, Michael R., Dougher, Michael J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cognition & reasoning
College students
compound stimuli
hierarchical stimulus control
humans
key press
Psychology
Social research
Stimuli
stimulus equivalence
stimulus interchangeability
stimulus sets
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Summary:Three experiments were conducted to investigate stimulus relations that might emerge when college students are taught relations between compound sample stimuli and unitary comparison stimuli using match‐to‐sample procedures. In Experiment 1, subjects were taught nine AB‐C stimulus relations, then tested for the emergence of 18 AC‐B and BC‐A relations. All subjects showed the emergence of all tested relations. Twelve subjects participated in Experiment 2. Six subjects were taught nine AB‐C relations and were then tested for symmetrical (C‐AB) relations. Six subjects were taught nine AB‐C and three C‐D relations and were then tested for nine AB‐D (transitive) relations. Five of 6 subjects demonstrated the emergence of symmetrical relations, and 6 subjects showed the emergence of transitivity. In Experiment 3, 5 college students were taught nine AB‐C and three C‐D relations and were then tested for nine 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 did not respond systematically during testing. The results of these experiments extend stimulus equivalence research to more complex cases.
ISSN:0022-5002
1938-3711
DOI:10.1901/jeab.1993.60-529