Comportamento de subtrair com base no paradigma de equivalência de estímulos: um estudo com deficientes mentais.

Abstract

A MTS procedure to teach conditional discriminations involving numerical stimuli in equivalence class formation nets was evaluated to teach people with mental retardation. Among the trained and tested relations it was given emphasis to the ones that are commonly called subtractions. Thus, after obtaining equivalence classes containing numbers, sentences and operators, it was tested and trained pre requisite relations to the formation of subtraction classes. The first step was the insertion of the symbolic units involved in the subtraction operation in equivalence classes numerals from 1 to 9 (Class ABC) and operators that composed the operation (class FGH). The second step comprised tests/training of the relations between the sentences with different stimuli spoken (I), with sets(J) and with algorisms (K) to values from 1 to 5. The third and last step consisted of teaching the subtraction operation to values from 1 to 5, by training the relation between sentence and result, using stimuli of the same kind (polka dot sets JB) and the test of the relation between the sentence and the result to values from 1 to 9, having conditional stimuli/ discriminative stimuli of different kinds relations between spoken sentence (I) and result in sets (B) and in algorisms (C), between sentence with sets (J) and result in algorisms (C) and the correspondent symmetry (KB), and results naming (E) from the sentence with sets (J) and with algorisms (K). The trained and tested relations were analyzed comparing the percentages of correct/incorrect responses (relative frequency) and the consistency in stimulus class formation. The results showed that the procedure allowed the emergency of some relations in test sessions in extinction, suggesting its potentiality to the acquisition of adequate responding to new numerical stimuli combination. For two of the participants, the training of only some relations was enough to others emerge: for P2, training the relation between spoken operator (F) and operator (H), between spoken operator and (F) operator s name (H), to minus and equal, and between spoken sentence (I) and set (B) and between spoken sentence (I) and algorism (C), for values from 1 to 5, allowed the performance emergency to the values from 6 to 9 in these relations and the emergency between sentences with sets (J) and set (B), besides naming (E) of sentences with sets (J) and with algorisms (K) to values from 1 to 9; for P3 training the relation between spoken sentence (I) and sentences with sets (J) and between sentence with sets (J) and set (B), to the values from 1 to 5, allowed emergency of relations between sentences with sets (J) and set (B) to values from 6 to 9 and the emergency of relations between spoken sentence (I) and set (B), between spoken sentence (I) and algorism (C), between sentence with sets (J) and algorism (C), between sentence with algorism (K) and set (B), between sentence with algorism (K) and algorism (C), besides results naming (E) from the sentence with sets (J) and with algorisms (K), to values from 1 to 9. It is considered that the procedure must be tested in other populations using, besides mathematic, other arithmetic operations, as summing and multiplying.