Association for Behavior Analysis International

This symposium explores how equivalence based instruction can be implemented in a low tech classroom, how equivalence class formation informs a better understanding of meaningful stimuli, how the establishment of joint control of graph-printed description relations can induce paragraph length descriptive writing, and how the delayed emergence of equivalence classes with extended testing challenges Sidman’s theory of class formation.

A special form of arbitrary conditional discrimination training was used to establish relations between interaction based graphs and printed paragraphs that describe the content of the graphs. Thereafter, participants wrote descriptions of the graphs. Each paragraph contained sentences that described the directionality of the functions in the graphs, the interactive effects of the two variables, and the relational elements of the graphs. A quantitative analysis of the accuracy of these two types of elements in each sentence type showed differential effects of the training conditions. The low level of training increased accuracy of non-relational elements in directionality statements and did not improve accuracy of relational statements. It also did not improve accuracy of non-relational and relational descriptions in interaction and intersection statements. The high level of training improved the non-relational and relational phraseology in all of the sentences. This analysis shows how level of training conditional discrimination training differentially influenced the accuracy of completeness of written descriptions of graphs that depicted the interactive effects of two variables on behavior.

The use equivalence based instruction (EBI) class room settings is rarely used. The present experiment describes a procedure that uses answer clicker technology to establish equivalence classes in a class room setting with 40 college students. A sorting test was conducted initially to determine whether the stimuli in the biology based classes were related to each other: they were not. Thereafter, training of AB and CB relations was conducted by presentation of a trial that contained a sample and three comparisons. Students selected the correct comparison with clickers, the responses of which were registered by the clicker software system. When the last student answered, the correct answer was displayed along with the percentage of student who answered correctly. Training continued until all students answered correctly. Thereafter, the procedure was repeated with CB training. Once completed, a sorting test was administered to determine whether the classes were formed. 85% of students formed classes. This demonstrates a means of using equivalence based instruction in a class room setting without the use of computers. The use of the sorting test to assess class formation substantially shortened the duration of an EBI session. Finally, students in the classroom enjoyed learning with this procedure.

Meaning and the enhancement of equivalence classes by prior establishment of arbitrary conditional discriminations. Meaningful stimuli serve as Sds, as elements in conditional discriminations, and as members of categories. The present experiment determined whether the establishment of a conditional discrimination with a meaningless shape, the C stimulus, would enhance the formation of an equivalence class that contains the C stimulus. When the C stimulus was linked to only one other stimulus, CX, its inclusion in a set of other abstract stimuli, ABCDE enhanced class formation but not to the same extent as the inclusion of a C stimulus that was a meaningful picture. When the abstract C stimulus was linked to VWXY and Z stimuli, its inclusion in the ABCDE set resulted in equivalence class formation that matched that produced by the inclusion of a picture. These results then clarify further now the behavioral functions of meaningful stimuli enhance the formation of equivalence classes.