TRAINING AND TESTINGMUSIC SKILLS IN A BOY WITH AUTISM USING A MATCHING-TO-SAMPLE FORMAT
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TRAINING AND TESTING MUSIC SKILLS IN A BOY WITH
AUTISM USING A MATCHING-TO-SAMPLE FORMAT
Erik Arntzen1*, Lill-Beathe Halstadtro2, Eli Bjerke3 and Monica Halstadtro3
1Akershus University College, Lillestrom, Norway2St. Olavs Hospital, Trondsletten Habilitation Services, Norway
3Byasen High School, Trondheim, Norway
A 16-year old boy with autism was taught music skills using a matching to sample procedure. He was
trained and subsequently tested for the formation of four 4-member classes, including different visual
music stimuli, and Norwegian and Vietnamese labels for different major and minor chords. Four
different stimuli sets were trained both in one-to-many (OTM) and many-to-one (MTO) training
structures. Further, we explored if the reaction times to comparison stimuli increased from training to
testing. Results showed that the participant formed equivalence classes with music relations. Further-
more, there were small differences only between OTM and MTO with respect to stimulus equivalence
responding. The reaction times to comparison stimuli increased from training to testing, and were most
pronounced for the equivalence trials. Copyright # 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
INTRODUCTION
Demonstrations of reflexivity, symmetry, and transitivity have been defined as an
interpretation of the behavioral outcome of stimulus equivalence (Sidman, 2000;
Sidman & Tailby, 1982). One of the characteristics has been that training a set
of conditional relations have resulted in many other conditional relations that are
not directly trained, i.e., participants have demonstrated new conditional relations
not explicitly taught after they have learned a number of arbitrary conditional
discriminations. The emergence of untrained relations is interesting in a number of
ways, and no less in applied settings. It is quite surprising that strategies based on
the stimulus equivalence approach are not more used in applied settings and, thus,
more research is called so that it will be possible to incorporate stimulus equivalence
training in treatment programs (Cautilli, Hancock, Thomas, & Tillman, 2002).
However, the work with normal developing children by deRose and colleagues are
worth mention as an exception (e.g., de Rose, de Souza, & Hanna, 1996).
Behavioral Interventions
Behav. Intervent. 25: 129143 (2010)
Published online in Wiley InterScience
(www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/bin.301
*Correspondence to: Erik Arntzen, Akershus University College, P.O. Box 423, 2001 Lillestrom, Norway.E-mail: [email protected]
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For example, in conditional discrimination training in which the participants are
trained to for the three 3-member classes the participant would be trained to respond
to comparison B1 and not B2 or B3 if the sample stimulus is A1; comparison B2 andnot B1 or B3 if A2 is present; comparison B3 and not B1 or B2 if A3 is present.
Furthermore, the participant would be trained to choose comparison C1 and not C2 or
C3 if B1 is present; comparison C2 and not C1 or C3 if B2 is present; comparison C3
and not C1 or C2 if B3 is present. The responding is characterized as symmetric if the
participant chooses comparison A1 and not A2 or A3 if B1 is presented, and chooses
comparison B1 and not B2 or B3 if C1 is presented. The responding is characterized
as transitivity if the participant chooses comparison C1 and not C2 or C3 when A1
is presented; comparison C2 and not C1 or C3 if A2 is presented as the sample;
comparison C3 and not C1 or C2 if A3 is presented as the sample. The responding ischaracterized as equivalence if the participant chooses comparison A1 and not A2 or
A3 when C1 is presented; comparison A2 and not A1 or A3 when C2 is presented;
comparison A3 and not A1 or A2 when C3 is presented.
Three different training structures have been described in the literature on stimulus
equivalence (e.g., Saunders, Saunders, Williams, & Spradlin, 1993), i.e., linear series
(LS) (A!B!C), one-to-many (OTM) (A!B and A!C), and many-to-one
(MTO) (A!B a n d C!B). Reports on the equivalence outcome have found different
results as a function of training structure. Some reports have found that OTM has been
more effective than MTO, and some others have found that MTO has been moreeffective than OTM. However, the LS training structure has given the lowest yields on
equivalence tests (Arntzen, Grondahl, & Eilifsen, in press). So it seems relevant to
conduct experiments to expand the knowledge about the different effects of MTO and
OTM training structures. The increase in reaction time has been related to problem
solving behavior (Holth & Arntzen, 1998).
There are also some data showing that there are differences in reaction times in
different training structures, i.e., longer reaction time in the OTM training structure
during baseline conditions compared to the other training structures. Furthermore,
that there is an increase from baseline to testing and that the increase is morepronounced for equivalence trials than for symmetry trials (e.g., Arntzen et al.,
in press; Arntzen & Holth, 1997, 2000; Arntzen & Lian, in press).
A relatively small number of studies have demonstrated stimulus equivalence or
derived relations with individuals with mental retardation (ODonnell & Saunders,
2003). Stimulus equivalence procedures have been used to train money skills (e.g.,
McDonagh, McIlvane, & Stoddard, 1984; Trace, Cuvo, & Criswell, 1977), reading skills
(e.g., Mackay, 1985), math skills (Hall, DeBernadis, & Reiss, 2006; Maydak, Stromer,
Mackay, & Stoddard, 1995), geographical skills (e.g., Hall et al., 2006; LeBlanc, Miguel,
Cummings, Goldsmith, & Carr, 2003), and verbal skills (Perez-Gonzalez, Garcia-Asenjo, Williams, & Carnerero, 2007; Perez-Gonzalez, Herszlikowicz, & Williams,
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2008). Trace et al. (1977) trained seven adolescents with mental retardation to match
several different combinations of coins to equal values in a combined pretestpost-test
design and a multiple baseline design. The results showed that the training procedureswere effective in teaching coin equivalence and the emergence of untrained relations in
the treatment group, whilst the emergent relations were not shown in the participants in
the control group. Furthermore, the performance was maintained in follow-up tests, i.e.,
1 week and 1 month after the training was completed. In a study by Mackay (1985), three
boys with mental disabilities were trained in matching of colors and printed words.
Before the training they could match spoken color names and patches of color and tact
the colors. After the training the boys responded correct when matching printed words
to dictated words (reading-comprehension) and naming printed words (oral reading).
Furthermore, Maydak et al. (1995) trained two adults with mental disabilities in numericskills. The participants were trained to match the numerals 15 to dots making up the
quantities and to their corresponding numbers. The results showed that the matching-to-
sample training produced emergent relations. In a study conducted by Perez-Gonzalez
et al. (2007), two children with pervasive development disorder were trained with pairs
of intraverbals as for example name the opposite of more; less. The results showed
that emergence of untrained intraverbal antonyms were found after extended cycles of
training and testing.
LeBlanc et al. (2003) trained US geography skills in two children with autism.
They used an LS training structure in which the A-stimuli were printed US statesnames, B-stimuli were maps indicating the shapes of the states, and C-stimuli were
the printed state capitals. Results showed that the participants learned the US
geography skills and untrained relations also emerged. Similar in a study by Hall et al.
(2006), one female and four adolescents with fragile X syndrome were trained in math
and US geography tasks. They used the same stimuli for the training and testing as
in LeBlanc et al. (2003). In the second part, the stimuli used for training and testing
in the match condition were fractions (A), picture of pie charts (B), and decimals (C).
The participants were trained in an LS training structure, and tested for responding
in accord with equivalence, transitivity, and symmetry. The results showed that fourout of five of the participants responded correctly during training with math tasks and
one in accord with equivalence during testing. For the geography, three of the five
participants responded correctly during training and all three responded in accord
with equivalence during testing.
As mentioned previously, conditional discrimination training has shown to result in
many new, untrained relations in with different stimuli. However, we have not
observed any studies yet where stimulus equivalence procedures have been used to
train music skills with individuals with autism. Therefore, we wanted explore the
effectiveness of equivalence training by teaching an adolescent with autism new skillswithin his field of interest, i.e., music. Accordingly, the main purpose of the present
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study was to establish some music skills by a conditional discrimination procedure
and to test for derived relations. Furthermore, to compare the effectiveness of MTO
versus OTM training structures with respect to emergence of derived relations. Wealso wanted to investigate if the reaction times to comparison stimuli increased from
training to testing.
METHOD
Participant
Tom was a 16-year old male with autism. His first language was Vietnamese and
Norwegian was his second language. He had some reading skills in both Vietnamese
and Norwegian. He was enrolled in a special education class for youths with autism or
other developmental disabilities at a public high school. On the Wechsler Intelligence
Scale for children (WISC-111), Toms performance IQ was scored as 32. A verbal IQ
score could not be obtained due to his level of functioning. He was very interested in
music and liked listening to the Rolling Stones, Beatles, and Elvis Presley. He could
play new, simple melodies on the keyboard with his right hand (the melody line) and
with the aid of a color code to indicate which note to play. He could also play 23
simple rhythms on the percussion drums, and could sing ten songs with the correct
melody together with the lyrics. However, he could not play any instrument by
reading notes. Therefore, the goal was to teach Tom to read simple notes and to play
them on the piano/keyboard.
Apparatus
A laptop, Dell Latitude D510 with a Dell mouse was used. The experimental
software was made by Psych Fusion Ltd. and developed in collaboration with the first
author. The matching-to-sample software controlled all stimulus presentations and
the recording of the responses.
Stimulus Material
As shown in Figure 1, the stimulus material was written major/minor chords
in Norwegian (Set A), major/minor chords written as dots on piano keys (Set B),
major/minor chords written as notes (Set C), and written major/minor chords in
Vietnamese (Set D). The stimuli were presented on the screen and the sample stimulus
was always presented in the middle of the screen, while the comparison stimuli wererandomly presented in the corners.
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Figure 1. Stimuli in different sets. Members are labeled with letters and classes are labeled withnumbers. The first sets are the major chords and the two other sets are the minor chords.
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Procedure
The training and testing took place in Toms room in school. The room was 12 m2. The
room had a shelf, table, PC table, and three chairs. Toms teacher was in the room while
he was working with the program. The study lasted for 4 weeks with 24 training sessions
per day MondayFriday. The training sessions were a minimum of 40 min in duration
and consisted of three training sequences and two breaks. The training sequences lasted
for 10 min and the breaks for 5 min. After finishing the training sequences he received
5 kroner (one Norwegian krone is about 0.144 US dollars) for having worked on the
computer. After the experimental session he could use the money to buy different
activities, e.g., watch a DVD film for a few minutes or read some pages in a book.
Pretesting
Before we started the training to establish conditional discrimination, Tom was
tested if he performed correctly according to the experimenter-defined four 4-member
classes. The participant was given a pile with the printouts of the stimuli in each set,
i.e., all 16 stimuli for each of the four sets were in each pile. Each test session started
with the following instruction: Please, sort the stimuli. No feedback or corrections
were presented during the test. The test was run three times in succession for each of
the four stimuli sets.
Instruction
Before the start of each training session, Tom read the following text originally in
Norwegian on the screen: You are going to do some tasks on the computer. The point
is to respond correctly as much as possible. The word correct on the screen means
you have clicked correctly, while the word incorrect means you have clicked
incorrectly. Sometimes you will not receive any messages of correct or incorrect.
Thank you for doing the tasks.
Behavior Recordings
Responses to sample stimulus and comparison stimuli and reaction time for responses
to both sample and comparison stimuli were recorded automatically by the software.
Training
Each trial started with a response to sample stimulus and followed by presentationof comparison stimuli randomly presented in the corners. Correct responses to
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comparison stimuli were followed by the written word correct on the screen.
Incorrect responses were followed by the written word incorrect on the screen and
the trial was repeated until the participant made a correct choice. The feedbackfollowing correct or incorrect responses remained on the screen for 3 s and was
followed by a 1 s inter-trial interval.
The participant was trained and tested for four different sets of stimuli, i.e., two
with major chords and two with minor chords. One of each chord was trained with two
different training structures, i.e., OTM and MTO. For the first major chord (see stimuli
set #1 in Figure 1), the participant was trained to form a three 3-member classes with
an MTO training structure. This was followed by expansion of both number of classes
and members, i.e., he was trained and tested with four 3-member classes and with four
4-member classes, successively. Training for the second major chord was the same,except that we used stimuli set #2 (see Figure 1) and an OTM training structure. The
first minor chord was trained as described for the major chords, except that we used
stimuli set #3 (see Figure 1). The second minor chord was trained as described above,
except that we used stimuli set #4 (see Figure 1) and an MTO training structure.
Training to form the three 3-member classes for all stimuli sets were followed
by tests for emergent relations (see below). Then, training to expand classes and
members were introduced and followed by another test for emergent relations (see
below). The sequence of training is shown in Table 1. The first letter of the two letters
in a pair of letters is always the sample and the second is always the comparison, i.e.,A is the sample and B is the comparison if the pair is AB. Furthermore, each class is
indicated by numbers, i.e., A1 and B1 are in the same class, while A2 and B2 are in a
different class.
For all four sets with the three 3-member classes, the trials were introduced on a
serialized basis and the number of comparisons was gradually increased. In the first
block, only the correct comparison was presented for the AB relations, i.e., A1B1,
A2B2, and A3B3 trials. In the second block, for the CB relations (for the MTO
training structure) the following trials were trained C1B1, C2B2, C3B3, or AC
relations (for the OTM training structure) or the following trials were trained A1C1,A2C2, A3C3. In these two first blocks a minimum of nine correct responses
were required before moving the next block. In the third block, all trial types were
intermixed but with only the correct comparison. Sixteen of 18 correct responses were
required to move on to the next block. In the fourth block, the number of comparisons
was increased, i.e., one correct and one incorrect. In the fifth block, all comparisons
were presented, i.e., one correct and two incorrect. In blocks 15, it was 100%
feedback for every correct response. Blocks 69 were the same as block 5 except that
the feedback was faded from 75 to 0% in four steps if the participant had 90% correct
or more responding. The last training block was followed by a test block (see below).The trials for the OTM training were: A1B1B2B3, A2B1B2B3, A3B1B2B3,
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Tabl
e1.
Thetableshowstrainingandtestcriterionduringeachblo
ck.
Phas
es
Trainingstructures
Trainingand
testcriterion
Feedback
Thre
e3-memberclasses
(1)
TrainingABtrialswitho
necomparison
9/9
100%
(2)
TrainingCB(MTO)orA
C(OTM)trialswithtwocomparisons
9/9
100%
(3)
MixingofABandCB(M
TO)trialsorABandAC(OTM)trialswithonecomparison
17/18
100%
(4)
MixingofABandCB(M
TO)trialsorABandAC(OTM)trialswithtwocomparisons
17/18
100%
(5)
MixingofABandCB(M
TO)trialsorABandAC(OTM)trialswiththreecomp.
17/18
100%
(6)
MixingofABandCB(M
TO)trialsorABandAC(OTM)trialswiththreecomp.
17/18
75%
(7)
MixingofABandCB(M
TO)trialsorABandAC(OTM)trialswiththreecomp.
17/18
50%
(8)
MixingofABandCB(M
TO)trialsorABandAC(OTM)trialswiththreecomp.
17/18
25%
(9)
MixingofABandCB(M
TO)trialsorABandAC(OTM)trialswiththreecomp.
17/18
0%
(10)
Testingsymmetryandeq
uivalence:BA,
BC,
ACandCA
(MTO)orBA,
CA,
BCand
CB(OTM)
17/18
0%
Four3-memberclasses
(1)
MixingofABandCB(M
TO)trialsorABandAC(OTM)trialswiththreecomp.
22/24
100%
(2)
MixingofABandCB(M
TO)trialsorABandAC(OTM)trialswiththreecomp.
22/24
75%
(3)
MixingofABandCB(M
TO)trialsorABandAC(OTM)trialswiththreecomp.
22/24
50%
(4)
MixingofABandCB(M
TO)trialsorABandAC(OTM)trialswiththreecomp.
22/24
25%
(5)
MixingofABandCB(M
TO)trialsorABandAC(OTM)trialswiththreecomp.
22/24
0%
(6)
Testingsymmetryandeq
uivalence:BA,
BC,
AC,andCA
(MTO)orBA,
CA,
BC,andC
B(OTM)
22/24
0%
Four4-memberclasses
(1)
MixingofAB,
CB,andDB(MTO)trialsorAB,
AC,an
dAD(OTM)trialswithfourcomp.
33/36
100%
(2)
MixingofAB,
CB,andDB(MTO)trialsorAB,
AC,an
dAD(OTM)trialswithfourcomp.
33/36
75%
(3)
MixingofAB,
CB,andDB(MTO)trialsorAB,
AC,an
dAD(OTM)trialswithfourcomp.
33/36
50%
(4)
MixingofAB,
CB,andDB(MTO)trialsorAB,
AC,an
dAD(OTM)trialswithfourcomp.
33/36
25%
(5)
MixingofAB,
CB,andDB(MTO)trialsorAB,
AC,an
dAD(OTM)trialswithfourcomp.
33/36
0%
(6)
Testingsymmetryandeq
uivalence:BA,
BC,
BD,
AC,C
D,
AD,
DC,
CA,andDA(MTO
)orBA,
CA,
DA,
BC,
CD,
BD,D
C,
CB,andDB(OTM)
33/36
0%
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A1C1C2C3, A2C1C2C3, and A3C1C2C3. For the MTO training the trials were:
A1B1B2B3, A2B1B2B3, A3B1B2B3, C1B1B2B3, C2B1B2B3, and C3B1B2B3.
When size and number of classes were expanded as for the four 3-member classesand the four 4-member classes all relations were presented from the beginning,
following the same procedure as described above for block 5. The fading of
consequences was the same as for block 69 above. The last training block was
followed by a test block (see below). For the four 3-member classes we trained the
following trials for the OTM training structure: A1B1B2B3B4, A2B1B2B3B4,
A3B1B2B3B4, A4B1B2B3B4, A1C1C2C3C4, A2C1C2C3C4, A3C1C2C3C4,
A4C1C2C3C4. For the four 4-member classes the trials were: A1B1B2B3B4,
A2B1B2B3B4, A3B1B2B3B4, A4B1B2B3B4, A1C1C2C3C4, A2C1C2C3C4,
A3C1C2C3C4, A4C1C2C3C4, A1D1D2D3D4, A2D1D2D3D4, A3D1D2D3D4,A4D1D2D3D4. For the four 3-member classes we trained the following trials for the
MTO training structure: A1B1B2B3B4, A2B1B2B3B4, A3B1B2B3B4,
A4B1B2B3B4, C1B1B2B3B4, C2B1B2B3B4, C3B1B2B3B4, C4B1B2B3B4. For
the four 4-member classes the trials were: A1B1B2B3B4, A2B1B2B3B4,
A3B1B2B3B4, A4B1B2B3B4, C1B1B2B3B4, C2B1B2B3B4, C3B1B2B3B4,
C4B1B2B3B4, D1B1B2B3B4, D2B1B2B3B4, D3B1B2B3B4 and D4B1B2B3B4.
Trials to criterion for the four 3-member classes were a minimum of 22/24 (correct/
total) responses and for the four 4-member classes the criterion was 33/36.
Testing
The last training block in the formation of three 3-member classes, four 3-member
classes, or four 4-member classes was always followed by test blocks in which
symmetry and equivalence trials were randomly intermixed. The tested relations are
shown in Table 1. The test was always run in one session and there was no feedback
presented for any trials in the test block.
Retraining
If the participant did not respond in accord with equivalence (see criteria for the
definition below), he was retrained. If retrained the training started with the phase with
mixing of all relations and with 100% feedback and followed by the phases with
reducing the feedback. Finally, another test phase was employed. The retraining was
employed only once.
Definition of Responding in Accord with Equivalence and Symmetry
We defined responding in accord with symmetry and equivalence for training withthe three 3-member classes when the participant responded with a minimum of 17/18
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(correct/total) on both tests, for the training with the four 3-member classes a
minimum of 22/24 for both tests, and for training with the three 4-member classes the
numbers were 33/36 and 65/72 or more. Therefore, for all tests we calculated an indexof derived relations. If the index was higher than 0.9 it was defined as indicative for
responding in accord with symmetry or equivalence.
RESULTS
During the pretest the participant responded with 0% correct for all classes, although,
we have only showed the data from the tests in Figures 2 and 3. In Figure 2, the indices
of symmetry and equivalence scores are shown for the stimuli sets with the majorchords. The participant did not respond in accord with equivalence following the first
training with the MTO structure. After retraining he responded with equivalence on the
three 3-member classes. For the four 3-member classes he responded in accord with
equivalence without retraining. For the four 4-member classes he required retraining
before he responded in accord with equivalence. For the OTM training structure only
one set had to be retrained. For both the three 3-member classes and four 4-member
classes he responded according to equivalence without retraining, while he responded
with equivalence after retraining of the four 3-member classes.
Figure 2. Derived responding (symmetry and equivalence) in different tests for the major chords. The
y-axis is index of derived responding and on the x-axis is different sets of stimuli. Black bars are theresponding for the symmetry trials, while gray bars are responding for equivalence trials.
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The indices for the stimuli sets with the minor chords starting with the OTMtraining structure are shown in Figure 3. For the three 3-member classes he responded
in accord with equivalence, but not with symmetry, so he was retrained and responded
successfully. For both the four 3-member classes and the four 4-member classes
he responded in accord with equivalence without retraining. For the minor chords
trained with MTO, he started with responding according to equivalence. For the four
3-member classes he responded in accord with symmetry, but not in accord with
equivalence. After retraining he responded in accord with equivalence. For the four
4-member classes he did not respond in accord either with symmetry or equivalence,
and not after retraining.As shown in Figure 4, the reaction time data show that the increase in reaction was
most pronounced from baseline (the five last training trials) to equivalence trials.
Furthermore, the reaction time for the baseline trials was higher for the OTM training
structure than for the MTO training structure.
DISCUSSION
The purpose of the current study was to expand the areas in which stimulusequivalence training has shown to be effective. The main results in the current study
Figure 3. Derived responding (symmetry and equivalence) in different tests for the minor chords. They-axis is index of derived responding and on the x-axis is different sets of stimuli. Black bars are
responding for the symmetry trials, while gray bars are responding for the equivalence trials.
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showed that the participant learned the different classes both as major and minor chords
following training both MTO and OTM training structures, except for the last stimuli settrained with MTO. Furthermore, a large number of relations emerged as a result of the
conditional discrimination training. The findings on the extra effects of conditional
discrimination training from our study are in accord with results from a number of other
studies (Hall et al., 2006; LeBlanc et al., 2003; Mackay, 1985; Maydak et al., 1995;
Perez-Gonzalez et al., 2007; Trace et al., 1977) who showed the effectiveness of
matching to sample procedures for teaching different skills and demonstrated
emergence of untrained relations to individuals with mental retardation/autism.
The participant learned the major and minor chords for all stimuli sets with the
OTM training structure, and three of four sets with the major structure - except thefour 4-member classes with the minor chords. For both major and minor chords with
MTO he needed to be retrained for two of the sets, while only one retraining was
required for OTM. Another issue is that in the first training with OTM and the three 3-
member classes he actually responded in accord with equivalence and not symmetry,
but with an index of 0.89. So in a sense we can conclude that OTM was more effective
in producing emergent relations in this participant.
As mentioned above, for some of the stimuli sets the participant had to be retrained
and then retested to see if the equivalence classes were formed. This is in accordance
with, for example, Perez-Gonzalez et al. (2007) who showed that repeated cycles ofprobing and teaching resulted in emergence of new relations. Therefore, it could be
Figure 4. Median reaction time to comparison stimuli in last five training trials (bsl) and the first five forsymmetry trials, and the first five and the last five trials for equivalence trials. Light black bars arereaction time for the OTM training structure, while gray bars are the reaction times for the MTO training
structure.
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important to include cycles of retraining and retesting in the teaching programs in
applied settings. It will ensure that the participants who do not respond in accord with
equivalence immediately will do it if they get more training and testing.The procedure in the current study was computer based which is also the case in
the study by Hall et al. (2006). However, a number of studies have used a table top
presentation (e.g., LeBlanc et al., 2003). Computer-based procedures have some
important advantages compared to table-top presentations, i.e., the need for reliability
scores and integrity data in table top presentations. Furthermore, the experimenters
using table top procedures have to be very careful in how the procedure is employed,
e.g., prompts etc.
A number of researchers have indicated that measures of reaction time in research
on derived relations could be important (e.g., Dymond & Rehfeldt, 2001; LeBlancet al., 2003). Furthermore, others have argued that the reason for the increase in
reaction time from baseline trials to test trials is due to some problem solving behavior
(e.g., Arntzen, 2004). In the current study, we found that reaction time increased from
baseline to testing, and that the increase was more pronounced for equivalence trials
compared to symmetry trials. This is in accord with a number of other studies (e.g.,
Arntzen & Lian, in press; Bentall, Dickins, & Fox, 1993; Eilifsen & Arntzen, 2009;
Spencer & Chase, 1996) and it is probable that the participant was engaged in some
problem solving behavior in the beginning of the test block. Future research should
focus on exploring such problem solving behavior by for example introducingdistracters during the test.
In a literature review on equivalence relations in persons with a limited or moderate
verbal repertoire ODonnell and Saunders (2003) suggested that documentation
of subjects language ability could be an extremely valuable addition to studies of
equivalence relations. They argue for using standard assessment tools that involve
direct measures of specific behavior so that comparable information would be
provided across studies. We will also echo Cautilli et al. (2002), who stated that it is of
importance to include such programs in which you train and test for equivalence
relations in the curriculum for children with autism.After the participant had learned to form classes of the major chords, he was
perhaps likely to form classes more quickly on the tests during minor chords. Arntzen
and Vaidya (2008) focused on the problem that experience in an earlier experimental
condition could influence performance in a later experimental condition. Therefore,
future research in this area should further explore the knowledge of functional skills
and with the use of other types experimental designs as for example multiple baseline
design.
We will argue that studies on equivalence training in people with mental retardation
are of both practical and theoretical importance. The current study is one moredemonstration and expands the areas where stimulus equivalence procedures have
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been used with individuals with autism. Thus, the matching to sample procedure
was effective for teaching a boy with autism music skills. Out of interest, after the
matching-to-sample training Tom has begun to use both major and minor chordswhen playing the keyboard/piano. Further research should include younger
participants diagnosed with developmental disabilities. Also, it would be interesting
to use equivalence training to train other skills for example social studies, nature
studies, and other hobby skills.
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