Relating Equivalence Relations to Equivalence Relations: A Relational Framing Model of Complex Human Functioning

Abstract

The current study aimed to develop a behavior-analytic model of analogical reasoning. In Experiments 1 and 2 subjects (adults and children) were trained and tested for the formation of four, three-member equivalence relations using a delayed matching-to-sample procedure. All subjects (Experiments 1 and 2) were exposed to tests that examined relations between equivalence and non-equivalence relations. For example, on an equivalence-equivalence relation test, the complex sample B1/C1 and the two complex comparisons B3/C3 and B3/C4 were used, and on a nonequivalence-nonequivalence relation test the complex sample B1/C2 was presented with the same two comparisons. All subjects consistently related equivalence relations to equivalence relations and nonequivalence relations to nonequivalence relations (e.g., picked B3/C3 in the presence of B1/C1 and picked B3/C4 in the presence of B1/C2). In Experiment 3, the equivalence responding, the equivalence-equivalence responding, and the nonequivalence-nonequivalence responding was successfully brought under contextual control. Finally, it was shown that the contextual cues could function successfully as comparisons, and the complex samples and comparisons could function successfully as contextual cues and samples, respectively. These data extend the equivalence paradigm and contribute to a behaviour-analytic interpretation of analogical reasoning and complex human functioning, in general.