Abstract

LIMA RIBEIRO, Keylla; NASCIMENTO OLIVEIRA, Yasmim  and  OLIVEIRA HENKLAIN, Marcelo Henrique. Training the Correspondence Between Different Ways of Presenting Problems Improves Mathematical Performance. Av. Psicol. Latinoam. [online]. 2021, vol.39, n.1, pp.1-18.  Epub June 03, 2022. ISSN 1794-4724.  https://doi.org/10.12804/revistas.urosario.edu.co/apl/a.8931.

National and international assessments demonstrate that Brazilian elementary school students have difficulties learning the behavior of solving arithmetic problems. This study aimed to investigate, using a multiple-baseline design (MBL) for participants, the effect of the formation of equivalence classes between different forms of pro blem presentation involving different positions of the unknown element and different semantic structures of the written problems on the performance in solving addi tion and subtraction problems. Six students in the fourth or fifth year of a public elementary school participated, and five completed the study. They all showed sufficient reading and writing behavior for participating in the research, difficulties in solving additive problems, and no evidence of math anxiety or significant problems in study behaviors in this discipline. P1, P2, and P3 were exposed to the conditional discrimination training to addition problems, while P4 and P5 to subtraction problems. The performance tests, which were composed of pre-tests and post-tests, involved problems of addition and subtraction. After the formation of equivalence classes, we found that P1, P2, and P3 presented average performance gains of 22.34% (SD = 14.62), and P4 and P5 of 19.84% (SD = 11.22). These results suggest the effectiveness of the pro cedure. We recommend that future studies use the MBL design with probes to reduce test repetitions, devise strategies to increase participant engagement, and inves tigate how to adapt this procedure to applied contexts.

Keywords : behavior analysis; stimulus equivalence; mathematics teaching; arithmetic.

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