Participant-Given Names to Stimuli and Stimulus Equivalence

Abstract

The aim of the current study was to test if names given by participants to stimuli during a delayed matching-to-sample (DMTS) procedure, when asked to talk aloud, becomes part of the established stimulus classes after training baseline relations and testing for responding in accordance with stimulus equivalence. The participants were exposed to a Many-to-one training structure with potentially three 3-member classes of abstract shapes with arbitrary experimenter defined relations. After the test for stimulus equivalence responding the names given by the participants were scored and included as textual stimuli in sorting tests. The main results are that the names given to the stimuli by the participants became a part of the stimulus classes if they responded in accordance with stimulus equivalence. Hence, it can be argued that if participants give names to the stimuli when exposed to DMTS procedures the classes are potentially larger than the experimenter defined classes. For example, the results show that five of the six participants gave individual names to each stimulus, which means that the three 3-member classes potentially are 6-member classes. Also, since the participants vocally named the stimuli, and those were transformed by the experimenter to text before the sorting task, one might even argue that 9-member classes were established after DMTS-procedure. Key words: delayed matching-to-sample, sorting, stimulus equivalence, talk-aloud.