Comparing Retention of Equivalence Classes Following Equivalence-Based Instruction and Comprehensive Instruction

Abstract

A retention test that followed equivalence-based instruction (EBI) was analyzed with the goal of understanding how variations of this teaching methodology impacted memory for taught and untaught associations between stimuli. In EBI, a small number of relations between pieces of information are taught directly, which leaves other relations to emerge. This study was conducted online during COVID-19 with 61 participants who learned three-4 member stimuli classes. The participants were randomly assigned to three experimental groups. The two EBI groups included many-to-one (EBI- MTO) and linear series (EBI-LS) training designs. The control group received complete instruction (CI), in which they were taught all stimulus relations. The retention test occurred two weeks after the original study. The test had two identical 36-trial blocks and demonstrated that overall performance increased from Block 1 to Block 2. However, there were no significant differences in performance between groups. Therefore, this suggests that both EBI structures did not improve retention for taught information in comparison to the control group. Additional research is needed to further evaluate retention in EBI teaching designs.