Avaliando a alteração da função de faces via equivalência de estímulos e pareamento de estímulos tipo respondente (ReT) em crianças com TEA

Abstract

Children with atypical development may have deficient face observation behavior. This deficit may explain, in part, some of their difficulties in social interaction and acquisition of complex behavior such as the verbal repertoire. The present dissertation explored the effect of two types of procedures: equivalence-based instruction and stimulus pairing, on the alteration of face functions measured by preference tests for human faces figures and duration of human face observation responses in social tests. The behavioral processes involved in face observation responses in children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) were researched in the two studies presented here. Experiment I, evaluated the effect of equivalence-based instruction on the potential transfer of function from preference figures items to figures of human faces and properly human faces. Three children diagnosed with ASD participated in the study. A Pre-test and post-test design was used, with multiple baseline temporal controls, divided into three phases: a) Pre-test: assessment of the choice responses and face observation, b) Intervention: equivalence class formation via identity matching with class-specific consequences, c) Post-test: repetition of measurements made in Pre-test phase. Results demonstrated that, despite the difficulty in documenting the emergence of conditional relations that prove properties of equivalence relations (only symmetry was obtained for two of the three participants), changes in choice responses to figures of human faces was evidenced in two participants. One of the participants showed also changes in social tests. However, in the reinforcement phase of the conditional relations of this study, there was pairing between stimuli: access to a high magnitude preference item is preceded by the presentation of a visual stimulus (figures of human faces). Therefore, Study II assessed the possible effect of this pairing alone on the function of faces in children diagnosed with ASD. Two children who did not participate in Study I took part in Study II. An intra-subject design comparing Pre-test and Post-test measures was implemented, organized in a multiple probe schedule between participants, divided into three phases: a) Pre-test; b) Intervention: respondent-type (ReT) pairing between pictures of faces and highly preferred item and between an abstract figure and a lower preferred item, and c) Post-test: repetition of Pre-test measures as described in Study I. Study II, therefore, was complementary to Study I. The results in Study II show alteration of responding to faces in preference tests and social tests for one of the two participants. The data obtained in this dissertation add basic research knowledge to identify behavioral processes involved in the human facial observational responses, as well as provide relevant information to the area of Applied Behavior Analysis to the intervention of children who have difficulties in attention to faces. The procedures explored point to the use of methodological strategies to alter the function of the faces and show the potential of the stimulus equivalence paradigm in altering observation responses.