Applied Behavior Analysis: Generalization & Maintenance
This deck covers key concepts in applied behavior analysis, focusing on generalization and maintenance strategies. It includes definitions and explanations of various terms and processes used to promote and assess behavior change across different settings and contexts.
Behavior Trap
An interrelated community of contingencies
of reinforcement that can be especially powerful, producing substantial and long-lasting behavior changes.
Effective behavior traps share four essential features:
(a) They are “baited” with virtually irresistible reinforcers
that “lure” the student to the trap;
(b) only a low-effort response already in the student’s repertoire is necessary to enter the trap;
(c) once inside the trap, interrelated contingencies of reinforcement motivate the student to acquire, extend, and maintain targeted academic and/or social skills; and
(d) they can remain effective for a long time because students shows few, if
any, satiation effects.
Key Terms
Behavior Trap
An interrelated community of contingencies
of reinforcement that can be especially powerful, producing substantial an...
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| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
Behavior Trap | An interrelated community of contingencies Effective behavior traps share four essential features: |
Contrived Contingency | Any contingency of reinforcement (or punishment) designed and implemented by a behavior analyst or practitioner to achieve the acquisition, maintenance, and/or generalization of a targeted behavior change. |
Contrived Mediating Stimulus | Any stimulus made functional for the target behavior in the instructional setting that later prompts or aids the learner in performing the target behavior in a generalization setting. |
General Case Analysis | A systematic process for identifying and selecting teaching examples that represent the full range of stimulus variations and response requirements in the generalization setting(s). |
Generalization Across Subjects | Changes in the behavior of people not directly treated by an intervention as a function of treatment contingencies applied to other people. |
Generalization Probe | Any measurement of a learner’s performance of a target behavior in a setting and/or stimulus situation in which direct training has not been provided. |
Generalization Setting | Any place or stimulus situation that differs in some meaningful way from the instructional setting and in which performance of the target behavior is desired. |
Indiscriminable Contingency | A contingency that makes it difficult for the learner to discriminate whether the next response will produce reinforcement. Practitioners use indiscriminable contingencies in the form of intermittent schedules of reinforcement and delayed rewards to promote generalized behavior change. |
Instructional Setting | The environment where instruction occurs; includes all aspects of the environment, planned and unplanned, that may influence the learner’s acquisition and generalization of the target behavior. |
Lag Reinforcement Schedule | A schedule of reinforcement in |
Multiple Exemplar Training | Instruction that provides the learner with practice with a variety of stimulus conditions, response variations, and response topographies to ensure the acquisition of desired stimulus controls response forms; used to promote both setting/situation generalization and response generalization. |
Naturally Existing Contingency | Any contingency of reinforcement (or punishment) that operates independent of the behavior analyst’s or practitioner’s efforts; includes socially mediated contingencies contrived by other people and already in effect in the relevant setting. |
Programming Common Stimuli | A tactic for promoting setting/situation generalization by making the instructional setting similar to the generalization setting; the two-step process involves (1) identifying salient stimuli that characterize the generalization setting and (2) incorporating those stimuli into the instructional setting. |
Response Generalization | The extent to which a learner emits untrained responses that are functionally equivalent to the trained target behavior. Undesired response generalization occurs when any generalized response produces undesired outcomes |
Setting/Situation Generalization | The extent to which a learner emits the target behavior in a setting or stimulus situation that is different from the instructional setting. Can be undesirable: Overgeneralization & faulty stimulus control |
Teaching Sufficient Examples | A strategy for promoting generalized behavior change that consists of teaching the learner to respond to a subset of all of the relevant stimulus and response examples and then assessing the learner’s performance on untrained examples. |
Response Maintenance | The extent to which a learner continues to perform the target behavior after a portion or all of the intervention responsible for the behavior’s initial appearance in the learner’s repertoire has been terminated. |
Teaching Loosely | Randomly varying functionally irrelevant stimuli within and across teaching sessions; promotes setting/situation generalization by reducing the likelihood that (a) a single or small group of noncritical stimuli will acquire exclusive control over the target behavior and (b) the learner’s performance of the target behavior will be impeded or “thrown off” should he encounter any of the “loose” stimuli in the generalization setting. |
Generalization | The occurrence of trained bxs at other times or in other places w/o having to be completely retrained in those settings, or if functionally equivalent bxs occur that were not taught directly Some generalized bxs are stronger than others |
Overgeneralization | A form of generalization in which a bx has come under the control of a stimulus class that is too broad |
Faulty Stimulus Control | A form of generalization in which a bx has come under the control of an irrelevant antecedent stimulus |
Stimulus Equivalence | An accurate response to an untrained and unreinforced stimulus that suddenly appears |
Contingency Adduction | A process in which a bx that was originally selected and shaped under one set of conditions is recruited by a different set of contingencies and takes on a new function |
Generalization Map | A conceptual framework for combining that various forms of generalized bx change |