Emergent Reading via Stimulus Pairing with Orientation Response

Matching-to-sample (MTS) is a widely used instrumental procedure for teaching reading and writing skills to beginning readers, in particular across stimulus equivalence research. Recent works suggests that stimulus-stimulus (S-S) pairing procedures incorporating orienting responses (SOresp) may also establish equivalence classes effectively. In brief, the “SOresp” involves sequences of S-S pairs following an orienting requirement (clicking on a fixation-cross that signals location of stimulus onsets). We investigated the efficacy of the SOresp using printed words (C) linked with referent pictures (B) with four children with reading deficits. Stimuli included six printed words (C1, C2 . . . C6) and their corresponding pictures (B1, B2 . . . B6) divided into two sets of three S-S pairs (Set 1: C1-B1, C2-B2, C3-B3; Set 2: C4-B4, C5-B5, C6-B6). For each stimulus set, the sequence was organized in 36-trial blocks (12 trials for each stimulus pair), repeated three to four times (108–144 trials per stimulus set). Training trials involved participants clicking on a fixation-cross presented in one of the four corners of the screen, followed by the presentation of a C-B sequence from one of three pairs (e.g., the printed word “LUA”—an image of the moon). Probe trials provided evidence for reading acquisition, and partial or total retention of the emergent reading, across all children, after a maximum of 144 teaching trials per set. A second experiment replicated and extended these findings with two additional children using a multiple probe design and three stimulus sets. These results have significant implications for educational interventions based on relational learning.