Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This study evaluated an experimental procedure for establishing an emergent reading repertoire of Japanese Hiragana (a non-alphabetic script) using the stimulus equivalence paradigm. Three native Portuguese speakers were exposed to a matching-to-sample (MTS) procedure to establish conditional discriminations between dictated syllables (A), Hiragana characters (B), and their corresponding Romanized representations (C). After directly training AB and AC relations for ten Hiragana characters, participants were tested for the emergence of BC and CB relations, followed by emergent Hiragana reading tests. All participants reached over 97% accuracy in the emergent relations, demonstrating the formation of equivalence classes. Two participants successfully read between 85% and 100% of the Hiragana characters without direct reinforcement. These results highlight the "teaching economy" inherent in relational models and suggest that auditory-visual equivalence protocols are effective for promoting emergent reading with symbolic comprehension. The findings are discussed in terms of the effectiveness of the procedure for emergent reading.
Source: The Psychological Record
Authors: Priscila Crispillho Grisante, Saory Miyakawa Morais, Eliana Isabel de Moraes Hamasaki, Gerson Yukio Tomanari
Institution: Universidade de São Paulo
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $2,990
Funders: Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo, Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Universidade de São Paulo, Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia para o Controle das Intoxicações por Plantas
OpenAlex ID: W7164926946