Effects of within-class differences in sample responding on acquired sample equivalence

Two experiments examined whether acquired sample equivalence in many-toone matching was affected by variation in sample-response requirements. In each experiment, pigeons responded on either identical or different response schedules to the sample stimuli that occasioned the same reinforced comparison choice (i.e., to the within-class samples). Transfer-of-control tests were then conducted to determine acquired equivalence, or lack thereof, between these samples. In both experiments, there was minimal or no evidence of acquired sample equivalence when pigeons responded differently to the samples within each common-choice class. By contrast, transfer was observed if pigeons responded (a) identically to all sample stimuli, or (b) identically to samples within each common-choice class (viz., to samples that occasioned the same reinforced choice) and differently to samples from different classes (viz., to samples that occasioned different choices). These results may help to explain the recent lack of evidence for response membership in pigeons' acquired equivalence (Urcuioli, Lionello-DeNolf, Michalek, & Vasconcelos, 2006). They also raise questions about the functional sample stimuli and about possible interactions between acquired equivalence and acquired distinctiveness.