Comportamento verbal sob controle de estímulos encobertos em indivíduos com atraso no desenvolvimento intelectual : estudos exploratórios

Abstract

This study aimed to develop the procedure for study and analysis of the covert event and to verify verbal behavior emergency under covert stimulus control. Two children and two adolescents with intellectual disabilities, students at a specialized institution, were submitted to matching to sample tasks. Preliminarily, some preferred edibles were selected for each participant and then conditioned reinforcing value of tokens was taught to make it possible to use them as teaching consequences. There was an array of experimental procedures involving two stimulus sets: set A, composed by dictated words and set B, by pictures. There was also set A composed by participants spoken words. Sets A and B were composed by four stimuli. The experimental design consisted of (1) teaching relations AB and BA , (2) teaching arbitrary relations B3B1 and B4B2 and testing symmetry, and (3) testing relations A4A 2 and A3A 1. When systematic incorrect responses were observed during relations B3B1 and B4B2 teaching, blocked trial procedure was applied. Other additional teaching procedures consisted of withdrawing the S-, teaching symmetry (B1B3 and B2B4) and providing verbal cues. However, even after applying these additional procedures, performance were above criterion, characterized by instability and deterioration. The literature emphasizes the difficulties in teaching conditional discriminations with visual stimuli for participants with intellectual disabilities. The results lead to a discussion of the intervenient variables, such as: i. Difficulties found by persons with intellectual disabilities in the matching to sample procedure; ii. What type of instruction should be given by the experimenter to help them perform the task and have access to consequences; iii. The computer as a resource to present the tasks; iv. The modality of stimuli and stimulus relations; v. Different performances presented by the participants during the exposure to the same experimental condition; vi. The consequences of reinforcement; vii. The criterion of performance established for each experimental condition and for additional procedure and; viii. Interruption in data collection. We conclude that although the participants did not reach performance criterion in relations B3B1 and B4B2 teaching, this study provides contributions of procedure design, and raises methodological questions that advance the understanding of covert stimulus tact acquisition by persons with intellectual disabilities. Through the discussion on these possible intervenient variables, we may infer that participants errors may be a matter of procedure instead of being related to their learning disabilities.