Title: Generalization and Maintenance of Behavior Change
1Generalization and Maintenance of Behavior
Change
2Are These Skills Useful?
- Bobby has learned to independently wash his
hands, but he only does this when Mrs. Kirk is
with him. - Melanie sits nicely and remains on-task during
math class but not social studies class. - Rachel learned to count to 100 using blocks last
year. This year her teacher asked her to count
out 100 pennies, but Rachel doesnt seem to know
how. - Leo can name all of the states using his favorite
U.S. puzzle, but cannot name them if he is asked
using the class map.
3Generalization
- It is meaningless to change behavior unless the
change can be made to last. - The behavior has got to occur in a setting other
than the original training site and in the
absence of the original trainer.
4Behavior Principle of Generalization Baer, Wolf
Risley
- A behavior change may be said to have
generalization - if it proves durable over time,
- if it appears in a wide variety to other possible
environments - if it spreads to a wide variety of related
behaviors
5Stimulus Generalization
- When a response is reinforced in the presence of
one stimulus, - That same type of behavior tends to be evoked by
stimuli that share similar physical properties
with that controlling antecedent stimulus
6Stimulus Generalization
- If you teach green using this color circle
Students most likely to say green
Students less likely to say green
(discrimination)
Students less likely to say green
(discrimination)
7Stimulus Generalization
- Sowhen a response has been trained with a
specific teacher, materials, or setting - It may occur with other, similar teachers,
materials, or settings - The more similar the novel teacher, materials,
and setting are to the training teacher,
materials, and setting - The more likely stimulus generalization will
occur
8Discrimination vs. Generalization
- Essentially opposite processes
- As one increases, the other decreases
- Discrimination
- Responding differently to 2 or more stimuli
- Tight degree of stimulus control
- Generalization
- Responding similarly to 2 or more stimuli
- Loose degree of stimulus control
9Stimulus Discrimination Stimulus Generalization
are a Continuum
10Articles to Know
- Baer, Wolf, and Risley (1968)
- Some ______________ of applied behavior analysis
- Very 1st issue of JABA
- Generality of Behavior Change as 1 of ABAs
defining characteristics - Stokes and Baer (1977)
- An ________________ of generalization
- Reviewed 270 studies on generalization
- Categorized 9 techniques for assessing and
training generalization
11Types of Generalization
- Response Maintenance
- Setting/Situation Generalization
- Response Generalization
12Response Maintenance
- Extent to which a learner continues to perform
the target behavior after a portion or all of the
intervention is terminated - AKA durability, behavioral persistence
- Examples?
13Setting/Situation Generalization
- Extent to which a learner emits the target
behavior in a setting or stimulus situation
thats different from the instructional setting
Mrs. Kirk taught Bobby how to wash his hands in
the school restroom
Will Bobby wash his hands at home?
14Setting/Situation Generalization
- The more similar the novel teacher, materials,
and setting are to the training teacher,
materials, and setting - The more likely setting/situation generalization
will occur (PG 619)
Bobby is more likely to wash his hands at home if
the sink and bathroom are similar to the one at
school
Mrs. Kirk taught Bobby how to wash his hands in
the school restroom
15Schedule of SR like in gen setting multiple
exemplars
Ducharme and Holborn (1997)
16Barker et al. (2004)
17Response Generalization
- Extent to which a learner emits untrained
responses that are functionally equivalent to the
trained target behavior - Can we teach creativity?
18SUDS Subjective Units of Distress Scale
Tx ERP
Wetterneck and Woods (2006)
19Planning for Generalization
- Select target behaviors that will meet natural
contingencies of reinforcement - Example
- Evans falling out of his chair is maintained by
attention - In choosing a replacement behavior, observe what
the other students in the class do that result in
attention for them - Teach Evan to do that!
- Specify all desired variations of the target
behavior and the settings/situations in which it
should and should not occur after instruction has
ended - List all the forms of the target behaviors that
need to be changed examples? - List all the settings/situations in which the
target behavior should occur examples?
205 Major Strategies for Promoting
Generalization
- Teach the Full Range of Relevant Stimulus
Conditions and Response Requirements - Make the Instructional Setting Similar to the
Generalization Setting - Maximize Contact with Reinforcement in the
Generalization Setting - Mediate Generalization
- Train to Generalize
211. Teach the Full Range of
Relevant Stimulus Conditions
and Response Requirements
- Teach sufficient examples
- Teach the student to respond to a subset of all
possible stimulus and response examples and then
assess generalization on untrained examples
(generalization probe) - Examples Item taught, format of presentation,
setting, person teaching - General Case Analysis
- Select teaching examples that represent the full
range of variations in the generalization setting - Example Teaching the concept of dog
222. Make the Instructional Setting
Similar to the Generalization Setting
- Program common stimuli
- Include typical features of the generalization
setting into the instructional setting - Examples preschool and classroom setup
- Teach loosely
- Randomly vary noncritical aspects of the
instructional setting within and across teaching
sessions - If some aspect of the materials, setting, method
of presentation doesnt matter - Change it from time to time so the learners
response doesnt come under tight stimulus
control of those irrelevant features
23Baers (1999) Recommendations
- Use 2 or more teachers
- Teach in 2 or more places
- Teach from a variety of positions
- Vary your tone of voice
- Vary your choice of words
- Show the stimuli from a variety of angles, using
sometimes one hand and sometimes the other - Have other people present sometimes and not other
times - Dress quite differently on different days
- Vary the reinforcers
- Teach sometimes in noisy settings, sometimes in
quiet ones - In any setting, vary the decorations, vary the
furniture, and vary their locations - Vary the times of day when you and everyone else
teach - Vary the temperature in the teaching settings
- Vary the smells in the teaching settings
- Within the limits possible vary the content of
whats being taught - Do all of this as often and as unpredictably as
possible
243. Maximize Contact
with Reinforcement
in the Generalization Setting
- Teach the target behavior to levels of
performance required by naturally existing
contingencies of reinforcement - Example Teaching a greeting, holding a door
- Program indiscriminable contingencies
- Arrange it so that the learner cant tell if the
next response will produce reinforcement - So that when hes in the natural environment,
hell continue to engage in the target behavior
often enough/long enough to contact reinforcement - Guidelines
- Begin teaching with CRF gradually thin the
schedule (e.g., FR5) and make variable (e.g.,
VR5) - Begin teaching with a 0 sec delay between
response and reinforcer gradually increase the
delay - Each time a delayed reward is delivered, explain
to the learner that hes receiving the reward for
specific behaviors performed earlier (to help the
learner learn the rule describing the contingency)
253. Maximize Contact
with Reinforcement
in the Generalization Setting
- Ask people in the generalization setting to
reinforce the target behavior - Teach the learner to recruit reinforcement
- How?
- Applicability?
264. Mediate Generalization
- Arrange for something or someone to ensure the
transfer of the target behavior from the
instructional setting to the generalization
setting - Contrive a mediating stimulus
- Bring the target response under the control of a
stimulus that will be in the gen setting - Example train mom and send the spoon home
- Example reinforcement systems in gen ed
- Teach self-management skills
- Learner takes the self-management system into the
generalization setting
275. Train to Generalize
- Reinforce generalization as a response class
- Instruct the learner to generalize
- Reinforce response variability
- How?
28Newman et al. (2000)