Impact of Socio-Cultural Environment on the Training of EquivalenceEquivalence Relationships

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to analyze the establishment of the equivalenceequivalence response in the repertoire of typically developing children from two different socio-cultural environments, by means of training in multiple exemplars. The aim was to observe if the socioeconomic environment variable influences the establishment of this response in childhood. For this purpose, 28 children aged between 6 and 8 years participated, 14 of them from a favored socioeconomic environment, and 14 of them from a disadvantaged one. In order to measure the study variables, sets of stimuli were used, with initial, training and evaluation phases, each with a specific criterion of correct answers. A response collection template and a questionnaire for information on the variable “socio-economic environment” were also used. In the results, all participants (14) from the advantaged socio-economic background passed the test, while those from the disadvantaged socioeconomic background; some of them did not pass the test (5) and others only after additional training (3). This could indicate that a certain context can interfere with the derivation of the equivalence-equivalence response and could become a relevant line of future research.