Urcuioli, P.J., Lionello-DeNolf, K., Michalek, S., & Vasconcelos, M. (2006).
Some tests of response membership in acquired equivalence classes.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 86, 81-107.
Pigeons were trained on many-to-one matching in which pairs of samples, each
consisting of a visual stimulus and a distinctive pattern of center-key
responding, occasioned the same reinforced comparison choice. Acquired
equivalence between the visual and response samples then was evaluated by
reinforcing new comparison choices to one set of samples, and examining
generalization of these choices to the other samples. Three separate
experiments found no evidence of such generalization, as indexed by performance
on class-consistent versus class-inconsistent tests. Other tests showed that
the pigeons’ center-key response patterns during training had indeed served as
a conditional cue for choice. These results do not support the hypothesis that
different defined responses can become members of acquired equivalence classes.
Key words: differential sample responding, acquired equivalence, response membership,
transfer, key peck, pigeons