Stromer, R., Mackay, H. A., & Remington, B. (1996).
Naming, the formation of stimulus classes, and applied behavior analysis.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,
29, 409-431.
The methods used in Sidman's original studies on equivalence
classes provide a framework for analyzing functional verbal
behavior. Sidman and others have shown how teaching receptive,
name-referent matching may produce rudimentary oral reading and
word comprehension skills. Eikeseth and Smith (1992) have
extended these findings by showing that children with autism may
acquire equivalence classes after learning to supply a common
oral name to each stimulus in a potential class. A stimulus class
analysis suggests ways to examine (a) the problem of programming
generalization from teaching situations to other environments,
(b) the expansion of the repertoires that occur in those
settings, and (c) the use of naming to facilitate these forms of
generalization. Such research will help to clarify and extend
Horne and Lowe's recent (1996) account of the role of verbal
behavior in the formation of stimulus classes.
DESCRIPTORS: naming, stimulus classes, stimulus equivalence,
generalization, application of basic research