title: The efficiency and efficacy of equivalence-based learning: A randomized controlled trial.
abstract: Because it employs an emergent-learning framework, equivalence-based instruction (EBI) is said to be highly efficient, but its presumed benefits must be compared quantitatively with alternative techniques. In a randomized controlled trial, 61 college students attempted to learn 32 pairs of proprietary and generic drug names using computer-based match-to-sample presentations of auditory and written drug names. Students who received EBI experienced pairings based on stimulus equivalence theory, and they mastered the material quickly. Control-group students practiced relations drawn at random from those that the EBI group learned via training or emergence. Students in the criterion-control group required many more trials to achieve the same accuracy as the EBI group. By way of a yoking procedure, students in the trial-control group received the same number of trials as the EBI students but achieved poorer accuracy and little mastery. Thus, EBI was more efficient and effective than unstructured presentation.
authors.affiliation: JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY.
authors.forename: Tracy E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Zinn
authors.affiliation: AUBURN UNIVERSITY.
authors.forename: M Christopher
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Newland
authors.affiliation: JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY.
authors.forename: Katie E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Ritchie
mesh_terms: D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D003194:Computer-Assisted Instruction; D003210:Concept Formation / Q000502:physiology*; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D014495:Universities; D014956:Writing
keywords: drug names; equivalence-based instruction; experimental yoked control; matching to sample; randomized controlled trial; stimulus equivalence