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Procedures other than matching-to-sample may be used to establish the conditional discriminations necessary to establish equivalence classes. One procedure, stimulus-stimulus pairing, may have particular relevance in accounts of the stimulus relations involved in language. Stimulus-stimulus pairing is a type of paired associate learning that uses a simultaneous presentation of two or more stimuli without explicit reinforcement of responding. This study explored the possibility that equivalent stimulus classes can be formed by simultaneous stimulus-stimulus pairings. Pairs of stimuli were presented according to three classes of stimuli derived by the experimenter. Matching-to-sample tests for combined symmetry and transitivity between these classes revealed that the stimuli were responded to as equivalent. Control conditions revealed, however, that classes formed only when stimulus pairing was alternated with matching-to-sample testing in which the contingencies for test performance were described to the subjects. The results are discussed in terms of how test conditions restrict and select responding to produce equivalence.
The stimulus equivalence paradigm (Sidman, Rauzin, Lazar, Cunningham, Tailby, & Carrigan, 1982; Sidman & Tailby, 1982) has proved to be of great value both as a method for producing complex behavior in a laboratory setting and as a basis for generating theoretical discussion. The stimulus equivalence model focuses on the emergence of responding to reflexive, symmetric, and transitive relations among stimuli. These relations are generally trained and tested using matching-to-- sample (MTS) procedures.
The findings of the stimulus equivalence literature have led to much debate concerning the importance of emergent relations and the formation of new stimulus classes (see Sidman, 1994, for a review). An area of interest to many investigators is the application of stimulus equivalence to the process of language acquisition (e.g., Chase & Danforth, 1991; Hall & Chase, 1992; Hayes, 1991; Lazar, 1977). In fact, many of the early studies used stimuli that were directly related to verbal classes and had a direct goal of instructing aphasics or individuals with developmental disabilities to read and speak (Sidman, 1971; Sidman & Cresson, 1973).
The stimulus equivalence paradigm answers many questions regarding the formation of broad verbal stimulus classes without explicit instruction or reinforcement. One kind of verbal stimulus class that might be accounted for by stimulus equivalence is a simple semantic class involving a spoken word, a written word,...