Stimulus equivalence and naming

Abstract

The functionality of verbal behaviour in stimulus equivalence was demonstrated by training verbally able adults with different combinations of easily nameable, yet formally unrelated, pictorial stimuli. Study One indicated that participants who were trained with combinations of pictures whose names rhymed with each other demonstrated the formation and generalisation of equivalence classes more readily than participants who were trained with non-rhyming combinations of the same stimuli. Studies Two and Three provided within-participant confirmations of this finding, and further indicated that previously established contextual control of baseline relations may be superseded by verbal control during testing without reinforcement. That verbal control and contextual cues may both provide a basis for the formation of generalised classes was also indicated. Study Four investigated the formation of contextually controlled equivalence classes using a think-aloud procedure, and additionally compared the performance of participants who were required to think aloud during experimentation with that of participants who were not required so to do. The results indicated that use of such procedures may disrupt the formation of contextually controlled equivalence classes. Studies Five and Six demonstrated the emergence and generalisation of stimulus classes on the basis of verbal control in the absence of reinforcement baseline training. Overall, the findings indicated that visual stimuli are named, that the phonological properties of those names can influence equivalence class formation and generalisation, and that the emergence of untrained behaviour may, under certain circumstances, be verbally controlled.

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