Teaching based on equivalence and prompts and learning of additive operations

Abstract

Studies on mathematical behavior based on the stimulus equivalence paradigm have shown promising results with regard to understanding the abilities involved in the acquisition and teaching of mathematical skills. The present study investigated the effect of a teaching program based on stimulus equivalence and prompts, as well as the effect of prompt modality on precurrent behaviors for learning addition and subtraction with numbers from 0 to 14. Four children (4 to 5 years old), three of which with neurotypical development and one of which diagnosed with autism, were exposed to a computerized teaching program and given matching-to-sample tasks. Half of the participants were exposed to prompts with pictures and the other half to prompts with videos. After the classes of numerals, operation symbols and sentences were formed, a training of the operations sentence with numeral-numeral was carried out, with a button available through which the participant could access the prompt. Results showed that all participants learned to select among the numerals (comparisons) the one that corresponded to the result (sample) of the addition or subtraction. In the present study, prompts with pictures and videos were functionally equal, evoking in children without previous exposure to the used teaching program the same precurrent behavior of using their own fingers to perform operations, with similar performances. The relations with the lowest scores were numeral-sentence with numerals and spoken sentence-numeral. The teaching program also fostered learning for the participant diagnosed with autism, who just like the other participants met the learning criteria in all units, despite needing more training trails in units 2 and 3. Overall, the teaching program was effective for children with neurotypical and neuroatypical development and resulted in learning with few errors. Thus, the current study broadens the knowledge about teaching mathematical behavior based on the stimulus equivalence paradigm. However, the generality of the results should be investigated with prompts with more distinct characteristics, other precurrent behaviors, and with a design that allows baseline repeated measures, and the identification of possible effects of intervening variables.