ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the need for scientific jargon but also emphasizes that such terms may actually interfere with the implementation of efficacious procedures. To this end the properties of equivalence (e.g., reflexivity, symmetry, transitivity) and their definitions are provided in typical language. The chapter also provides a brief history of the research and an overview of its importance to education. Specifically, Sidman (1971), Sidman & Tailby (1982) and Sidman (1994) are reviewed. The esoteric terminology (e.g., discrete trial training, simple discriminations, conditional discriminations, matching-to-sample, etc.) are presented and re-defined in everyday language. The chapter ends with a template for a data sheet (in Excel) that can be modified to teach and test for simple discriminations, conditional discriminations, reflexivity, symmetry and transitivity (Appendix A).
