The Effect of the Establishment of Preference for Math on Rate of Learning for Pre-Kindergarten Students

Abstract

Conditioned reinforcement for math, or math enjoyment, may be critical for students. If so, this should be established as early as pre-kindergarten, as conditioning the components of math as reinforcement arguably leads to more complex mathematical operations thus impacting individuals’ future math ability and literacy (Engel et al., 2013), A multiple probe across dyads design with a nested multiple probe across dyads design was used to determine if establishing a preference for math influenced students’ rate of learning math. The intervention tested the effect of the individualized reinforcement procedures, based on a sequence of conditioning procedures proposed in Buttigieg and Greer’s (2023) study, on establishing conditioned reinforcement. Three participants required learn units, two participants required the stimulus–stimulus pairing procedure, and one participant required observational conditioning-by-denial to establish conditioned reinforcement for math. The dependent variable was each participant’s rate of learning as measured by the number of learn units required to meet mastery criterion for four units of the Equivalence Based Functional Math Curriculum (EBF-Math; Weber et al., 2023). Results showed an educationally significant acceleration of learning following the establishment of conditioned reinforcement for math across all six participants. Results are discussed in terms of the significance of early math instruction and literacy.