FACILlTATlON OF EQUIVALENCE-EQUIVALENCE RESPONDING IN CHILDREN

Abstract

Eight children from 10 to 11 years old were trained on A-B, A-C matching-tosample tasks. Equivalence-equivalence responding was assessed after evaluating the formation of three equivalence classes of three members each (AB-C) Equivalence-equivalence trials consisted of a matching-to-sample task with compound stimuli. Equivalence-equivalence responding was defined as chosing an equivalent comparison in the presence of an equivalent sample or chosing a non-equivalent comparison in the presence of a non-equivalent sample. According to the literature, this kind of responding should be part of the children's repertoire; yet no participant passed the equivalence-equivalence test after being trained in equivalence-class formation only. In this study we evaluated various remedial techniques such as increasing the number 'of trials, isolating various elements of initial training, and introducing novel procedures of training and testing. Our data indicate provisionally that formal same/different training facilitates the emergence of equivalence-equivalenc responding in the participants who initially failed such tests.