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. 1993 Nov;60(3):529–542. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1993.60-529

Compound stimuli in emergent stimulus relations: Extending the scope of stimulus equivalence

Michael R Markham, Michael J Dougher
PMCID: PMC1322163  PMID: 16812718

Abstract

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.

Keywords: stimulus equivalence, compound stimuli, hierarchical stimulus control, stimulus sets, stimulus interchangeability, key press, humans

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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