The effect of pre-training of abstract stimuli to exert control over tact and mand responses on stimulus equivalence class formation.

Abstract

Recent studies show that the formation of stimulus equivalence classes can be enhanced by meaningful stimuli. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether acquired meaningfulness, through pretraining of meaningless stimuli to exert control over tact or mand responses, would enhance stimulus equivalence class formation. Participants were eighteen university students aging 18-over 40 that were alternately assigned to either the Tact (n= 9) or the Mand Group (n= 9). Participants in all groups received a card sorting test following either a tact or mand pre-training. They then received training and testing procedures to establish three 3-node 5-member equivalence classes under the simultaneous protocol. After serialized training of AB, BC, CD, and DE relations, all probes used to assess the emergence of symmetrical, transitive, and equivalence relations were presented for two test blocks. Lastly, the card sorting procedure was repeated. Results showed that the pre-training of abstract stimuli to exert control over tact and mand responses did not produce equivalence class enhancement. Future studies should further investigate the relationship between the verbal properties of meaningful stimuli and the formation of stimulus equivalence classes.