Eye movements during conditional discrimination training and equivalence class formation

ABSTRACT Ocular observing response topographies, as duration and number of eye fixations, vary among conditional discrimination procedures. Such measures have yet to be accounted for as a function of different training structures as the many-to-one (MTO), one-to-many (OTM), or linear series (LS). The present experiment explored differential outcomes in eye movement topographies, as duration and number of eye fixations, during the potential formation of six 3-member equivalence classes—prepared simultaneously and in a sequential training arrangement. Nine college students participated. Results showed that one of three participants, prepared with MTO, OTM, and LS, respectively, formed equivalence classes. Participants who responded in accordance with stimulus equivalence revealed longer fixation durations to sample stimuli and shorter fixation durations to comparison stimuli and, furthermore, fixated longer and more often on correct comparison stimuli, regardless of equivalence classformation. These findings have implications with respect to eye movements predictive value of delayed emergence of equivalence classes.