Warmups, Stimulus Equivalence, and Middle School Students
CAI modules incorporating stimulus equivalence training , termed warmups, established
vocabulary necessary for reading chapters one to five of Malott, Whaley, and Malott's
Elementary Principles of Behavior (EPB). Students (a) completed a chapter's warmups,
(b) read the chapter and then (c) completed two tests provided by the authors-- a basic
and an intermediate level test. No breaks separated steps (a)-(c).

To assess the relative contributions of the warmups plus reading-vs-reading alone, each
chapter was divided into three parts and each part was studied in a different way: (a)
warmups plus reading the chapter, (b) reading the chapter, and (c) no contact with the
material. Basic and intermediate test questions were grouped according to whether they
were covered by material in conditions (a), (b) or (c) and scored separately.

Data indicate that warmups plus text yielded just under 90% correct answers on basic and
intermediate tests. This is notable because three of the subjects were Dean's list college
sophomores and three were 7th grade honors students. Their key difference was in the
reading alone condition: The sophomores' reading only scores averaged about 9% lower
than warmups plus reading whereas the 7th graders averaged about 17% lower (basic
tests) to 20% lower (intermediate tests). All students performed about equally well when
no contact with the material was had (about 30%-40% correct across both tests).

Developing the CAI Software
First, EPB was used because, in this author's opinion, it is far better designed than most
junior high texts on any subject. Besides, what 7th grader can resist a book that begins
"I'm a woman trapped in a man's body"?

Step two involved identifying (a) the words to be trained and (b) the equivalence class
members to be established including synonyms, antonyms, physical properties, examples,
temporal relations, and cause-effect relations. For example, the equivalence class for
"behavior" included the synonym "response", the antonym "mind-stuff", the property of
being a physical thing, etc. Notation used to symbolize a term (e.g., "R" for response) was
also included. Additional notation was used to symbolize the stimulus equivalence
relationship being taught or tested (e.g., "=" for synonym, "" for antonym, etc.) So a frame
that uses symmetry to train a synonymous relationship between "behavior" and "something
people or animals do" looks like this:

Later, a testing of this symmetrical relationship may look like this:

Response = Something People or Animals Do

When this frame is presented, the student can select the correct match with a mouse. In
short, warmups allow instructors to control a term's meaning. Errors result in correction
sequences or a return to earlier frames.

In later stages of training, multiple stimulus equivalence relations, such as synonyms and
antonyms, were taught or tested in the same frame. Warmups also included formats with
raised text that students could point to and click with a mouse to identify responses,
consequences, etc. in simple to complex contingency analyses.
Forms to organize the creation of warmups are available from the author.
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