Effects of a teaching by overllaping two-stimulus under conditional control procedure in deaf children

Abstract

In the present study, five deaf children were taught to produce stimuli sequences by na overlapping procedure under conditional control. The procedure was computerized. The stimuli were presented on the screen of the computer and the participants were to select them sequentially (e.g., A1 -> A2, in the presence of the green color and A2 -> A1 in the presence of the red color). If the sequence was produced in agreement with the programmed contingencies, an animation was presented for the correct answer plus praise signs in Brazilian Language of Signs. Different sequences produced the darkening of the screen for 3s and the re-presentation of the trial. The criterion of performance required three consecutive attempts without errors. All participants performed the criterion, one of them needed re-exposition to the teaching conditions. Next, behavioral tests were applied. In the transitivity (e.g.,A1 -> A3), connectivity (e.g.,A1 -> B2 -> A3), transfer of functions (e.g., A1 -> D2) and generalization tests (e.g., a rubber, two glasses, three boxes) all participants answered according to the programmed contingencies in most of the trials. The results corroborated the efficiency of the procedure, suggesting that equivalence of sequential stimuli can occur even under conditional control among deaf children. It is our purpose to expand this study to five terms contingencies.

Keywords: sequence production; ordinal classes; ordinal relations; equivalence relations; conditional discrimination.