Using stimulus equivalence procedures to teach name-face matching to adults with brain injuries.
A brief pause during match-to-sample can unlock name-face memory in adults with brain injuries.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Three adults with brain injuries could not match names to faces.
The team used match-to-sample trials on a computer.
They taught A-B and B-C relations, then tested if name-face matching popped out without direct teaching.
What they found
Two of the three adults quickly learned to match names to faces.
They also passed tests for symmetry and transitivity—skills never drilled.
The third adult needed extra prompts, but finally showed the same emergent learning.
How this fits with other research
Arntzen et al. (2015) and Ribeiro et al. (2024) now show you can get even stronger results by adding a six-second delay or quick math problems during the wait.
These tweaks lift success from zero to 70-80% in college students, so the 1992 protocol has been quietly superseded.
Busch et al. (2010) used the same logic to teach brain facts, proving the method works for both injured and typical adult brains—an encouraging extension.
Why it matters
If you teach adults with memory problems, slip a short delay or a tiny task between sample and comparison screens.
You may see new skills bloom without extra teaching time.
Try it next session: count to six before the learner touches the screen.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
On pretests, 3 men with brain injuries matched dictated names of three therapists to written names, but did not match dictated or written names to photos, produce correct names in response to photos, locate offices given written names, or name therapists on sight. Match-to-sample training established conditional relations between dictated names and photos. Posttests showed the emergence of untrained conditional relations involving photos and written names, indicating development of three classes of equivalent stimuli (each containing a dictated name, photo, and written name). For 1 participant, conditional relations involving photos of office nameplates were also examined, but did not emerge pre- or posttraining. Two participants produced names orally when given photos and sorted written names and faces together after training; the 3rd participant was unavailable for these posttests. After training, 1 participant located and named all three therapists in their offices.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1992 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1992.25-461