Studies focusing on the formation of ordinal classes have reported a number of experimental findings relevant to the comprehension of sequential stimulus relations. The aim of this investigation was to replicate previous findings obtained with normal children and adults (Study 1) using a training by chaining procedure in order to ascertain whether learning in deaf children could also be maintained under conditional control, using visual stimuli and chained motor responses (Study 2). In study 1, seven children with profound hearing impared degree, sign language naives, served as subjects. A programmed procedure was used to chain responses to three sets of stimuli: A = printed number names, B = numbers presented in Brazilian Sign Language and C = abstract forms in different quantities. The values assigned to the three stimulus categories varied from 1 to 6. In Study 2, five deaf children were subjected to the same teaching procedure, although with sequential variation. Each participant was to respond, in the presence of a green-colored stimuli, presented in a A1A2A3A4A5A6 sequence; and in the presence of a red-color stimuli in the 6A5A4A3A2A1 sequence. In both studies, after having responded correctly to each sequence, an animated figure appeared on the screen, and the experimenter praised each child with signed words signifying very good, correct, or great. When an incorrect response was emitted, the screen whitened for a second, and a new configuration of stimuli was presented randomly. The sessions were carried out in a classroom in a public school for hearing-impaired students. It was used a laptop computer with software designed to present
the stimuli and record behavioral data. After each trial and a revised baseline for each response sequence, tests of transitivity and connectivity were administered in order to
16 evaluate the emergence of ordinal classes, in a non-adjacent paired stimulus array with substitutability. The results showed that the participants responded quickly in both studies. In conclusion, the procedure was efficient in facilitating the acquisition of numerical concepts, and showed that emergence of equivalent stimulus classes occurred outside the matching-tosample format in hearing-as well as deaf children.
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