1. Generalization and Maintenance of Behavior Change
Chapter 28

2. Are 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 doesn’t 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.

3. Generalization
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.

4. Behavior 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

5. Stimulus 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

6. Stimulus Generalization
If you teach “green” using this color circle …
Student’s most likely to say “green”
Student’s less likely to say “green” (discrimination)
Student’s less likely to say “green” (discrimination)

7. Stimulus Generalization
So…when 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

8. Discrimination 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

9. Stimulus Discrimination &Stimulus Generalization are a Continuum

10. Articles to Know… Baer, Wolf, and Risley (1968)
Some ______________ of applied behavior analysis
Very 1st issue of JABA
Generality of Behavior Change as 1 of ABA’s defining characteristics
Stokes and Baer (1977)
An ________________ of generalization
Reviewed 270 studies on generalization
Categorized 9 techniques for assessing and training generalization

11. Types of Generalization
Response Maintenance
Setting/Situation Generalization
Response Generalization

12. Response 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?

13. Setting/Situation Generalization
Extent to which a learner emits the target behavior in a setting or stimulus situation that’s 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?

14. Setting/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

15. Ducharme and Holborn (1997)
Schedule of SR like in gen setting; multiple exemplars
Ducharme and Holborn (1997)

16. Barker et al. (2004)

17. Response Generalization
Extent to which a learner emits untrained responses that are functionally equivalent to the trained target behavior
Can we teach creativity?

18. Wetterneck and Woods (2006)
SUDS = Subjective Units of Distress Scale
Tx = ERP
Wetterneck and Woods (2006)

19. Planning for Generalization
Select target behaviors that will meet natural contingencies of reinforcement
Example
Evan’s 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?

20. 5 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

21. Teach sufficient examples
1. 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

22. Program common stimuli
2. 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 doesn’t matter…
Change it from time to time so the learner’s response doesn’t come under tight stimulus control of those irrelevant features…

23. Baer’s (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 what’s being taught
Do all of this as often and as unpredictably as possible

24. 3. 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 can’t tell if the next response will produce reinforcement…
So that when he’s in the natural environment, he’ll 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 he’s receiving the reward for specific behaviors performed earlier (to help the learner learn the rule describing the contingency)

25. 3. 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?

26. 4. 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

27. Reinforce generalization as a response class
5. Train to Generalize
Reinforce generalization as a response class
Instruct the learner to generalize
Reinforce response variability…
How?

28. Newman et al. (2000)