Sidman and Tailby (1982) established procedures to analyze the nature of stimulus to stimulus relations established by conditional discriminations. Their research describes specific behavioral tests to determine the establishment of properties that define the relations of equivalence. An equivalence relation requires the demonstration of three conditional relations: reflexivity, symmetry, and transitivity. The equivalence stimulus paradigm provides a method to account for novel responding. The research suggests that equivalence relations provide a more efficient and effective approach to the assessment, analysis, and instruction of skills. The present research examined the effectiveness of the formation of an equivalence class in teaching young children coin value relations. The second aspect of the study was to determine if there was a relationship between equivalence class formation and generalization of the skills established to other settings. Five children, 4- and 5-years old, were selected to participate in the study based on their lack of skills in the area of coin values and purchasing an item with dimes or quarters equaling fifth cents. The experimental task was presented on a Macintosh computer with HyperCard programming. The experimental stimuli consisted of pictures of dimes, quarters, and Hershey candy bars presented in match-to-sample procedures. Two conditional discriminations were taught (if A then B and if B then C.). The formation of an equivalence class was evaluated by if C then A. Generalization across settings was tested after the formation of an equivalence class by having the children purchase a Hershey candy bar with dimes at a play store. A multiple baseline experimentaldesign was used to demonstrate a functional relationship between the formation of an equivalence class and generalization of skills across settings. The present research provides supportive evidence that coin value relations can be taught to young children using equivalence procedures. The study also demonstrated generalization of novel, untaught stimuli across settings, after the formation of an equivalence class. A posttest on generalization across settings was conducted 3 months after the study. Long-term stability of equivalence relations was demonstrated by three of the subjects. / Department of Special Education
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/180137 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Creators | Roberts, Creta M. |
| Contributors | Ulman, Jerome D. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | xi, 142 leaves : ill. (some col.) ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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