The establishment of auditory equivalence classes with a go/no-go successive matching-to-sample procedure

Abstract

The go/no-go successive matching-to-sample (S-MTS) procedure involves the presentation of a sample followed by one comparison in the same location. Participants are required to either touch (go) or refrain from touching (no-go) related and unrelated comparisons, respectively. One advantage of S-MTS is that both sample and comparisons can be auditory. Thus, the purpose of Experiment 1 was to establish three 3-member auditory equivalence classes using familiar dictated words. After training AB and AC relations, 16 out of 16 participants met emergence criterion for symmetry (BA/CA), 12 out of 16 for transitivity/equivalence (BC/CB), and 9 out of 16 for intraverbals, for which testing involved vocalizing relations among auditory stimuli. The purpose of Experiment 2 was to assess the potential influence of stimulus topography on equivalence class formation and the emergence of intraverbal behavior. After training AB and AC relations with unfamiliar stimuli, 16 out of 16 participants met emergence criterion for symmetry (BA/CA), 13 out of 16 for transitivity/equivalence (BC/CB), and 8 out of 16 for intraverbals. Results suggest that the S-MTS procedure may serve as an alternative to simultaneous MTS in the development of auditory equivalence classes.