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Spatial Combinatorial Entailment

Combining Spatial Relations: Prepositions

In this task, the learner reads short stories describing the spatial relationships between familiar objects (e.g., “A cookie is on the plate. A glass of milk is beside the cookie.”). The learner practices identifying and combining these relationships to describe how all the objects relate to one another. For example, if the cookie is on the plate and the milk is beside the cookie, the learner may infer that the plate is under the cookie and beside the milk. This activity targets combinatorial entailment using common prepositions such as on, under, beside, in, near, and behind. The goal is to help the learner integrate multiple spatial relations to form new, untrained connections and strengthen flexible relational reasoning.

  • Format Stories
  • Cards 30 cards
  • Viewer Story
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30 Cards in this deck
2 Associated tags
Oct 15, 2025 Last updated

Teaching Guide

Strategies, prompts, and context to help you introduce and scaffold this activity.

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Teaching Phases

2 notes

Phase 1 (Mutual Enailment)

Goal: The learner answers two back-to-back questions that each require a mutual (reversed) spatial relation, both anchored to the common item that appears in both sentences.

Example Story:

“A cookie is on the plate. A glass of milk is beside the cookie.”
(Common item = cookie)

Teaching Script (two questions in a row):

  1. “Where is the plate (relative to the cookie)?” → “Under the cookie.”
    (mutual of cookie on plate)
  2. “Where is the milk (relative to the cookie)?” → “Beside the cookie.”

Prompting & Correction:

  • Model → Lead → Test sequence.
    • Model: “The plate is under the cookie.”
    • Lead: “Say: under the cookie.”
    • Test: Repeat the question.
  • Reinforce independent correct answers and fade prompts quickly.

Phase 2 (Combinatorial Entailment)

Goal: The learner integrates both story relations to derive a new, combined statement about an item’s location relative to both other items.

Example Story:

“A cookie is on the plate. A glass of milk is beside the cookie.”

Teaching Script (one integrated question):

  • “Where is the plate (considering both sentences)?”
    → “Under the cookie and beside the milk.”
  • Alternate: “Where is the cookie?” → “On the plate and beside the milk.”