Successive Matching-to-Sample and the Establishment of Conditional Relations

Although matching-to-sample (MTS) reliably produces equivalence classes, it requires several prerequisite skills. In the absence of these prerequisites, MTS may produce faulty stimulus control. Research has shown that alternatives such as compound stimulus discrimination and successive matching-to-sample (S-MTS) have been sufficient to produce conditional relations. Six experiments were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of S-MTS to produce stimulus classes in 48 adults. S-MTS trials consisted of the presentation of a single sample stimulus followed by one comparison on a fixed location. Depending on the relation of the sample and comparison, participants touched (i.e., go) or did not touch (i.e., no-go) the comparison. Following training of baseline relations (AB/BC), participants received tests to evaluate whether untrained relations (i.e., BA/CB and AC/CA) emerged. Although participants passed symmetry tests, many failed transitivity. These results suggest that SMTS may be a promising procedure for the establishment of conditional relations.