Abstract

MEDEIROS, José Gonçalves  and  SILVA, Rosária Maria Fernandes da. The purposes of reading tests over generalization in teaching of reading to children. Psicol. Reflex. Crit. [online]. 2002, vol.15, n.3, pp. 587-602. ISSN 0102-7972.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0102-79722002000300013.

The present study aimed at investigating reading and writing acquisition, based on studies on stimulus equivalence. It was carried out with 7 children ranging from 7 to 16 years old, during literacy development, with the specific objective of investigating the effects of reading tests presented during the phases of a matching procedure. Two sets of reading tests were used during the phases of pre and post-tests and of learning. All participants involved in the research learned the taught words, although only 4 were able to generalize them. The reading tests did not produce differential generalization within the groups. Based on a functional and structural analysis of the words used, the successes are discussed taking into account the effects of the syllabic recombination and of the temporal contiguity with reinforced and non-reinforced attempts; the errors are attributed to the abstract nature of the generalization words, suggesting, for the tests, the use of words belonging to the participants' everyday vocabulary.

Keywords : Stimulus equivalence; matching to sample; school failure; reading tests.