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4.7 Stimulus Equivalence Example Part 1

Let’s look at a phenomenon known as stimulus equivalence. Stimulus equivalence involves deriving relations of sameness or equivalence and is often studied in the laboratory with arbitrary symbols like these1. First, a person learns to match one arbitrary visual stimulus (A) to another (B). The stimuli are not actually labeled A and B in the experiment, silly. Whenever stimulus A is presented at the top, picking stimulus B is reinforced. 

A person is demonstrating stimulus equivalence.
  1. Barnes-Holmes, D., Barnes-Holmes, Y., and Smeets, P. M. (2004). Relational frame theory and stimulus equivalence: Conceptual and procedural issuesInternational Journal of Psychology and Psychological Therapy, 4(2), 181-214.
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