PULIDO, Lizbeth; RANGEL, Nora    ORTIZ, Gerardo. The role of verbal exchange within the solution of tasks in primary school children. Acta comport. []. 2013, 21, 1, pp.36-52. ISSN 0188-8145.

The present study pretended to explore the role of different contingential arrays (i.e., individual, collective or shared) on the establishment of verbal exchange and its impact over the individual instrumental measures on task solving. A task of virtual puzzle assembling was used, displayed in computers that could be interconnected or not, depending on the experimental condition. The programming and ordination of the experimental sessions was made according to a logical progression, going from individual conditions to shared conditions. Emerging verbal interactions were registered on each condition in accordance to the theoretical and methodological framework proposed by Ribes (2001) for the social behavior study from a psychological perspective. Furthermore, we attempted to determine the effect of the exposure history to different contingential arrays on the emerging, effective conversation time and quality (in terms of its instantial, modal or relational status) of verbal interactions over the instrumental performance of the participants (correct or incorrect placements in the visual puzzles). It was found that: 1) the type of contingency to which participants were exposed seemed to be directly related with the emergence and quality of the established verbal exchanges that they established, and 2) the instrumental performance of the participants was favored by the presence and the kind of verbal exchanges. The results suggest that extending the exposure history to shared contingencies could affect the emergence, the extension and the quality of the verbal interactions established by the participants.

: verbal exchange; task solving; instrumental performance; individual contingency; collective contingency; shared contingencies; primary school children.

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