The effects of tact training on the development of analogical reasoning.

Foti et al. (2015) asked if giving a shared name to pictures before teaching same/different tacts helps adults see analogies.

They ran four small lab tests with college students. First the students learned to name two sets of shapes with one label each. Then they got tact training on same/different relations. Finally the team checked if the students could match class-to-class (equivalence-equivalence).

Most adults who first learned a common name for each set later passed the analogy tests. The naming step more than doubled success rates.

Without the pre-tact naming, fewer students formed the equivalence-equivalence relations.

Jolliffe et al. (1999) already showed that rhyming names speed up basic equivalence classes. F et al. extend that idea to analogical (class-to-class) relations.

Cordeiro et al. (2021) did almost the same study six years later. They dropped the pre-tact naming and still got good analogy scores with tact training alone. The difference: their students needed extra listener probes to firm up the relations. So the 2015 naming boost is helpful but not required.

Cohen et al. (1990) tested children and found that shorter nodal paths help classes form faster. F et al. echo that verbal shortcuts matter, but they work with adults and use a shared name instead of shorter nodes.

If you teach sorting, analogies, or higher-order language, try giving a quick common label to each set before you train same/different. A single name like “zork” for all red triangles can prime the class. Watch if the learner then links whole groups faster. If not, add listener probes as Cordeiro did. Either way, you now have two clear paths to analogy success.