An “Orwellian” Account of Stimulus Equivalence. Are Some Stimuli “More Equivalent” Than Others?

Abstract

Stimulus equivalence is widely accepted as a model of semantic relations. However, few studies have used methods other than matching-to-sample to assess whether equivalent stimuli are semantically related. This article describes that formed equivalence classes with arbitrary stimuli and faces expressing emotions. A semantic differential showed that the arbitrary stimuli were then evaluated similarly to the faces, indicating that they had acquired similar meanings. The semantic differential permitted a quantitative assessment of the degree of relatedness between equivalent stimuli, and showed that relatedness varied as a function of nodal distance and simultaneous or delayed matching in training. Another study confirmed the semanticity of relations between faces expressing emotions and their equivalent stimuli through the IRAP. This study also confirmed that stimuli in classes formed with delayed matching-to-sample are more strongly related than those in classes formed with simultaneous matching.

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