Annual Activity Report 2010

SOME IMPACTS OF THE INSTITUTE´S RESEARCH

In our research area the time that elapses between data collection and the actual publication of a manuscript is typically very long, especially in comparison to other areas. It is common to see many years pass between the beginning of a project and publication of the results. It is estimated that, for that very reason, the impact of work that has been recently conducted at the INCT will only be felt after a few years. What we can describe in this report is the impact of earlier research, mostly originated at the Nucleus of Studies on Behavior, Cognition and Teaching (Núcleo de Estudos sobre Comportamento, Cognição e Ensino- ECCE) which preceded and provided the seed for the current INCT. Therefore, we describe below how the earlier research produced different effects on the scientific community and the larger society, which may be considered, in a broad sense, as impacts of this research.

Complex relational learning

Research to validate stimulus equivalence as a model for symbolic behavior (e.g. Bortoloti & de Rose, 2009), attracted attention from researchers in the field even before results were published in journals, with convention presentations of the underlying assumption that the model can be strengthened if it resists tests with instruments that are independent of the model itself, such as the semantic differential. The project already yielded four published papers and two in press. Two of these are in journals of international visibility,The Psychological Record (Bortoloti & de Rose, 2009) and Psicologia: Reflexão e Crítica (Bortoloti & de Rose, in press), both international journals indexed by ISI.

Research on basic processes of repertoire recombination has the potential of having a major impact given the development of an artificial linguistic mini-system that allows rigorous experimental control to disentangle the effects of different variables concerning the learning history from the effects of experimental variables. Two papers were published in national journals. Another one is currently in press and one was submitted to the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB), the most prestigious and selective journal in this research area. Interestingly, this type of research was originated from translational research on reading and writing acquisition – the difficulty in experimental control due to the fact that the studies had to be conducted while students were at school (and that could not be otherwise), was a challenge that led to the MSL proposal and the subsequent studies.

Similarly, an interesting derivation of research on reading is a line of investigation recently created by ECCE researchers which has been continued at INCT on musical reading: the acquisition of musical reading in musically illiterate individuals models a system that disentangles acquisition processes of symbolic relations from the past symbolic learning. Two master’s theses on the subject have been produced at UNB and one paper is in press at The Analysis of Verbal Behavior (Perez & de Rose, in press), which will be published in the 2010 volume.

Selective attention and observation in symbolic tasks

Studies on selective attention and observation behavior, critical for the reliable investigation of controlling relations in simple and conditional discrimination tasks, are one of the fruits of the partnership between USP and UMMS; at USP, three master’s theses and one doctoral dissertation (Hamasaki, 2009) on observing response have been concluded, one doctoral dissertation will be concluded soon, four papers were published (for example, Pessoa et al., 2009, Journal of Eye Movement Research) and one is in press at the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

The empirical basis of conditions for establishing symbolic behavior (beyond the standard matching-to-sample procedure) and, additionally, for standardizing new procedures and experimental protocols, which broaden the research possibilities in the area, have been extended to studies with simultaneous  and successive simple discrimination procedures (go/ no go). At USP, two papers were published at the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (Debert, Matos, & McIlvane, 2007; Debert et al., 2009) and one at Acta Comportamentalia (Perez, Campos, & Debert, 2009). Two master’s theses on the topic have been concluded at USP (Campos, 2009; Hora, 2009), one at UFSCar (Canovas, 2010), three at UPA (Liane Souza, 2009; R. Borges, 2010; S. Maués, 2010) and one doctoral dissertation at UNB (Moreira, 2010).

Experimental School for Primates and animal models of symbolic behavior

At the Experimental School for Primates (EEP), there are currently four INCT researchers, one post-doctoral fellow, four doctoral students, nine master students and 11 undergraduate students who are now working either on Scientific Initiation projects or their Honor’s theses. EEP has had many master and doctoral graduates and has offered research opportunities for a great number of undergraduate students.

EEP developed methodology for teaching and evaluation of pre-symbolic repertoires in Capuchin monkeys, which has recently been used in the investigation of visual and auditory perception in this species. The main finding was probably the demonstration of a generalized identity concept in this species. Equally important were the identification of specific relations of stimulus control on the performances of those individuals in the baseline and in tests of emergent relations. The international recognition of these studies is reflected by the publication of five papers in journals indexed by ISI in recent years, an expressive number especially considering the long time of investment in preparation and data collection in each one of these studies. Another important achievement of EEP has been the international interest it has been attracting given that this line of work has generated behavioral technology for the instruction of non verbal individuals. This type of technology can be applied to socially relevant problem solving, for example, the development by EEP researchers, in collaboration with the University of Massachusetts, of a battery of non verbal executive functioning tests which should be used to evaluate cognitive deficits caused by mercury contamination in Amazonia. The use of a non verbal battery could solve reliability problems that have been found in standard testing that requires verbal instruction. Recent funding from NIEHS is an important impact of work being developed at EEP. A sign of the increasing international repercussion of behavioral technology being developed at EEP is the interest displayed by different international researchers in learning about this methodology, as was the recent case of Dr. Valentina Truppa from the Instituto di Scienze e Tecnologie della Cognizione in Rome, Italy.

The studies with infrahuman’s at The Experimental School for Primates which were previously conducted at INCT are expanded at the current Institute with more species being studied in projects involving animal models, like dogs and bees. The first studies with these species have just recently been published in national journals.

Symbolic functioning in non verbal populations or with developmental delays

Identity matching and arbitrary matching in infants

At INCT, one line of investigation, which had been started at ECCE, has been continued by three groups of researchers affiliated to labs from three different federal institutions. They have been working to create and test efficient methodologies for the study of precursors to symbolic behavior in babies and children up to 36 months. This line of research is relevant mainly for its potential to offer empirical basis to explanatory models of human symbolic functioning and to develop stimulation procedures for babies with developmental risks. Given the challenging nature of the task, one of the most important contributions of this group was the development of a methodology to investigate relational behavior in babies. Based on one doctoral dissertation and six master’s theses, the group has been able to publish different papers in national journals (Oliveira & Gil, 2008; Silva & Souza, 2009) and one has been accepted at The Psychological Record (Gil & Oliveira, in press).

Exclusion Responding : a behavioral process and a procedure

Research on responding by exclusion or fast mapping possibly involved in the rapid acquisition and retention of vocabulary has been conducted in collaboration between INCT researchers for many years in two different lines: the description of basic processes and application with the incorporation of opportunity to respond by exclusion as a procedural characteristic to promote learning. At UFSCar, two master’s theses and one doctoral dissertation in the first line have been defended and papers have been published at The Psychological Record, Psicologia: Reflexão e Crítica, Revista Brasileira de Análise do Comportamento, Temas em Psicologia and one paper is in press at Acta Comportamentalia, With regards to teaching, the procedure was administered in reading and writing programs (translational research) but more recently, it has been administered in preparations with babies and monkeys, resulting in robust learning when other procedures have failed. This interaction between the predictable behavior process and its management as a tool for the investigation of other processes has proved to be very productive (that is, has had an impact on the progression of research at the Institute). Several papers are in preparation and should be submitted soon.

Deafness and cochlear implant

The collaboration between researchers that worked in the previous PRONEX project with the Center for Audiological Research at the Rehabilitation Hospital of Craniofacial Anomalies (CPA/HRAC) at USP in Bauru, which is considered one of the best implant surgery teams in Brazil (especially with babies), led us to invite to the INCT team Dr. Maria Cecilia Bevilacqua from CPA/HRAC, one our main collaborators now.

The collaboration with CPA/HRAC has goals that include scientific contribution and the development of useful technology for auditory rehabilitation in children who have received cochlear implants. Whereas the majority of studies on language development (production and comprehension) in implanted individuals have a descriptive and correlational nature (longitudinal follow-up and use of scales), the Institute has been documenting learning step by step, under rigorous experimental control; the methodologies being developed have the potential to contribute to the elucidation of failed cases or partial success cases of implant and the investigative procedures have the potential to generate rehabilitation technologies for this population.

Three doctoral dissertations and four master’s theses have been concluded and some of the most important findings have recently been published at the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (Almeida-Verdu et al., 2008). This publication is an example of how long work in this area may take, since it groups the results from four experiments which have been conducted as work for one doctoral dissertation and one master’s thesis in the period of six years between the beginning of the project and publication of the final work. In addition to the scientific contribution of this work, which demonstrates the establishment of symbolic relations involving auditory stimuli in children with cochlear implant and identifies variables related to the development of these relations, it is hoped that this work results in effective practices of auditory rehabilitation for children with cochlear implants. A more direct contribution is probably the work of Silva, de Souza, Bevilacqua, Kimura and Lopes Jr. (in press), to be published at Psicologia: Reflexão e Crítica, which reports a non verbal procedure to measure auditory thresholds and maximum comfort boundaries, which can be applied in the regulation of recent cochlear implants. This procedure has been refined in subsequent studies and is currently being used in clinical routines at CPA/HRAC.

Procedures for the teaching of reading, writing and Mathematics based on stimuli equivalence and recombination of unities

The group that founded INCT has published in this area since 1989 and in 1996 the work with the greatest repercussion so far was published (de Rose, de Souza & Hanna, 1996). The amount of repercussion this work has generated can be measured by the international impact- ISIS database –by reference books in the area and by the number of citations in Brazilian journals. This work, published at the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis has been cited 25 times in journals indexed by ISIS. The number of citations is not small for the area, especially if we consider the work is on teaching reading in Portuguese. On the other hand, this work has also been cited in Brazilian published papers, in journals that are not included in the ISI database, therefore, the number of citations in this database is only a partial indicator of its impact. Additionally, this paper is also cited in one of the most renowned text books in the area of Applied Behavior Analysis (Cooper, Heron & Heward, 2007). In this book, de Rose, de Souza & Hanna’s paper (1996) is described and presented as a model for the application of stimuli equivalence processes in teaching. This application has been recently referred to as EBI (equivalence based instruction) and is a topic of many recent papers which expand EBI to new contexts, not only for the teaching of individuals with mental disabilities or learning disabilities. Recent publications have reported on the use of EBI on, for example, teaching of college level Mathematics, Neuroscience and Statistics, and de Rose et al.’s work is cited in some of these most recent publications as a demonstration of EBI applicability.

As a result of the repercussion of these studies, some INCT members have been invited to contribute a chapter (de Souza, de Rose, & Domeniconi, 2009) for the book organized by R. A. Rehfeldt and Y. Barnes-Holmes, Derived Relational Responding. Applications for Learners with Autism and other Developmental Disabilities (Rehfeldt & Barnes-Holmes, 2009). In this book’s preface, the renowned theorist and researcher Steven Hayes considers it a unique accomplishment in applied psychology and says: “I know of no other book that extends a single approach within basic experimental psychology into intervention programs across the full range of issues that need to be addressed in applied work in human language and cognition.” The participation of INCT members in such endeavor is certainly an important impact of work that has been developed by this group.

Another important impact of this scientific work on the teaching of reading and writing is the application of acquired knowledge and of developed institutional programs in the remediation of learning disabilities in reading and writing. Initially, this application was done in Computerized Classrooms for Beginning Readers (Unidades de Iniciação à Leitura). The UFSCar classroom, for instance, has been operative since 1998, in collaboration with public schools. These schools identify children with learning disabilities who are driven to the UFSCar classroom. Children participate in three different instructional programs using the computer and they start with the rudiments of reading and writing isolated words until they reach full reading (and comprehension) of texts. In addition to students from these schools, some parents also come to the center for help and are readily received by the research assistants. The classroom has received about 800 children since its foundation in extensive programs which generally involve 60 sessions with the children. Other classrooms have been recently created at UNB, UFPA and UNCISAL.

This classrooms and their instructional programs attracted interest of many towns in its vicinity which are willing to implement the program and thus reach all the students with learning disabilities in the area. The implementation of these reading classrooms started with two small towns (Boa Esperança do Sul, SP, and Muzambinho, MG) using the instructional programs developed by INCT researchers to help all the students with learning disabilities in reading and writing in the schools. Although the work has been interrupted in Muzambinho, it is still being used in Boa Esperança do Sul, where approximately 480 students have been instructed in the past five years. A similar service has been implemented three years ago in some schools in a larger town (Limeira, SP) and since 2008, it has been adopted by the Municipal Secretary of Education in Ibaté (SP) to be used in nine municipal schools. The expansion of the application of instructional programs has resulted in more demand from the municipal towns which have been investing on resources to help implement the program in their schools, mainly, on hiring and training of teachers and trainees. The direct application of this teaching program on solving real educational problems has reinforced the promising results obtained in experimental situations, also showing that the program can contribute to decrease school failure in concrete situations (e.g., de Souza et al., 2009; Reis, de Souza, & de Rose, 2009). Therefore, the work by INCT members has already had an impact on public policy regarding municipal education, which may increase as this work becomes more familiar to educators and administrators. It is hoped that this impact may be expanded with the possibility of access to instructional programs via internet, to be performed by the GEIC platform. In order to increase the dissemination and the consequent impact of the results obtained so far, the group has also been publishing work in Brazilian journals in the area of Education, as is the case of Reis, de Souza e de Rose (2009).