The effects of tact training on the development of analogical reasoning

This study assessed whether tact training would establish analogies as measured by equivalence-equivalence relations. In Experiment 1, six college students were trained to tact "same" or "different" in the presence of AB and BC compounds based on component class membership (e.g., A1B1 as "same", and A1B2 as "different"), and then tested on emergent tacts (BA, CB, AC, CA) and equivalence-equivalence relations. Only one of six participants passed all tests without remedial training. In Experiment 2, six college students were trained to tact only compounds belonging to the same class as "same". Three of six participants passed all tests without remedial training. In Experiment 3, six college students were trained to tact stimuli belonging to the same class with a common name prior to exposure to relational tact training. All participants passed tests without remedial training. In Experiment 4, eight college students were trained to tact stimuli belonging to the same class with a common name. Six participants passed without remedial training, while two, who did not tact the relation of the compounds, did not. Results from these studies suggest that simple discrimination of individual components and their relation in the form of tacts is related with equivalence performance.