Leader, Barnes, & Smeets, 1996

Submitted by admin on April 24, 2008 - 4:54pm
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APA Citation: 

Leader, G., Barnes, D., & Smeets, P. (1996). Establishing equivalence relations using a respondent-type training procedure. The Psychological Record, 46, 685-706.

Type of Publication: 
RFT: Empirical
Abstract: 

The authors (researchers at the National U of Ireland, U Coll, Dept of Applied Psychology, Cork, Ireland) conducted n3 experiments, 35 adults across 7 experimental conditions were exposed to a respondent-type training procedure in which arbitrary stimuli (i.e., nonsense syllables) were presented. Ss demonstrated equivalence responding after 2, 3, or 4 exposures to the training and testing. The remaining 6 conditions showed that the effectiveness of the respondent-type training procedure in producing equivalence responding was dependent upon (1) the presence of longer between-pair-delays relative to the within-pair-delays and (2) the sequence in which stimulus pairs were presented.

Comments: 
The first in a series of studies investigating a new procedure for the derivation of equivalence relations. “Training” merely involves observing on-screen presentations of stimulus pairs and then testing for equivalence using a match-to-sample format. More effective in establishing equivalence than standard MTS arrangements.
Key Words: 
respondent-type training procedure using nonsense syllable pairs, symmetry & equivalence responding, 18-25 yr olds, Ireland