Abstract
The current study evaluated the effectiveness of a successive matching-to-sample (S-MTS) procedure with a go/no-go preparation to establish three 3-member classes of visual stimuli with 24 undergraduate college students. At the start of each trial, participants touched a sample stimulus after which a comparison immediately appeared in the same location on the screen. Then, depending on the relation between sample and comparison, participants were required to either touch the comparison (i.e., go) or to refrain from touching it (i.e., no-go). The comparison remained on the screen for 8 s independent of participants’ responses. Following training of baseline relations (AB/BC), responses to untrained relations (i.e., BA/CB and AC/CA) were assessed. Overall, 22 out of 24 participants met emergence criterion on AC/CA tests, with reaction times to comparisons below 5 s indicating that S-MTS may be a viable alternative to traditional MTS to establish equivalence classes.
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Author Note
Portions of this study served to fulfill requirements for master’s theses in behavior analysis at California State University, Sacramento and Endicott College for the first and third authors, respectively, under supervision of the fourth author. We thank Areli Perez, Tina Charnett, Ryley Acrea, and Erik Godinez for their assistance with data collection.
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All data reported in this study are stored in the Verbal Behavior Research Laboratory at California State University, Sacramento. These data are available upon request from the contacting author.
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The authors of the current study report no conflict of interest. All participants signed an informed consent describing the procedures as approved by the California State University, Sacramento Institutional Review Board.
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Howland, T.G., Zhelezoglo, K.N., Hanson, R.J. et al. The Establishment of Visual Equivalence Classes with a Go/No-Go Successive Matching-to-Sample Procedure. Psychol Rec 71, 157–166 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40732-020-00434-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40732-020-00434-x