The go/no-go successive matching task and the emergence of arbitrary relational responding: A review

Go/no-go successive matching (GNG-matching) tasks are one of several procedures used to establish conditional discriminations. This study presents a systematic review aimed at comparing procedures and outcomes of empirical studies using GNG-matching tasks for the emergence of symmetry, transitive, and global equivalence relations in humans and non-humans. A total of 22 articles were analyzed—nine with nonhumans and thirteen with humans. Procedural variables, including trial parameters, stimulus characteristics, and training and testing conditions, were documented alongside the number of participants meeting baseline, symmetry, and global equivalence criteria per experiment. Results showed that 87.5% of human participants demonstrated symmetry, while 58.81% passed global equivalence tests. Among nonhumans, 41.22% demonstrated symmetry, while transitivity was minimally explored, with a 34.83% success rate. A meta-analysis revealed correlations between trial structure, training/testing parameters, and the immediate emergence of symmetry relations in humans. Variability in outcomes across species may stem from differences in prerequisite skills or procedural inconsistencies. Standardizing parameters is essential to distinguish phylogenetic from procedural influences, as current cross-species inconsistencies confound results. These findings provide a framework for refining experimental methods, identifying research gaps, and informing discussions on the critical conditions for equivalence-class formation.