Abstract
Equivalence relations: a theoretical synthesis within the basic and applied empirical data. The present paper is a synthesis of a wide (extensive) review (Valero, 1990) on the phenomenon titled Equivalence Relations, a type of interactions which make possible the emergence of new behavior without being explicitly trained. The phenomenon has been defined as well as the antecedente have been indicated. What follows is the description of the different areas of research, that is: (a) expansion of the number of relations, (b) types of responses, stimuli, and procedures used, (c) the analysis of the variables involved in the matching-to-sample procedure, (d) the analysis of the possible intervening behavior, (e) the analysis of the verbal components involved, and finally, (f) a brief review of the studies conducted from an applied point of view. The paper ends, on the one hand, with the variables known with regard the internal validity of application of the matchingto-sample procedure needed to isolate the emergence of new behavior, and on the other hand, with regard to the variables involved in such an emergence. Relevant points are discussed and research is emphasized.
