Mueller, M. M., Olmi, D. J., & Saunders, K. J. (2000).
Recombinative generalization of within-syllable units in prereading children.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,
33, 515-531.
This study demonstrates recombinative
generalization of within-syllable units in prereading children.
Three kindergarten children learned to select printed
consonant-vowel-consonant words upon hearing the corresponding
spoken words. The words were taught in sets; there were six sets,
presented consecutively. Within sets, the four words that were
taught had overlapping letters, for example, sat,
mat, sop, and sug. Tests for recombinative
generalization determined whether the children selected novel
words with the same components as the trained words (e.g.,
mop and mug). Two children demonstrated
recombinative generalization after one training set, and the 3rd
demonstrated it after two training sets. In contrast, 2 other
children, who received tests but no training, showed low accuracy
across six sets. The 3 experimental children then demonstrated
highly accurate printed-word-to-picture matching, and named the
majority of the printed words. These findings are a promising
step in the development of a computerized instructional
technology for reading.
DESCRIPTORS: _recombinative generalization, reading, arbitrary
matching to sample, children