1. Transferring Behavior to New Settings and Making It Last: Generality of Behavior Change Chapter 16

2. Generality Trained behavior transfers form training situation to natural environment Training leads to development of new behavior that has not been specifically trained Trained behavior is maintained in the natural environment over time

3. Stimulus Generalization Behavior becomes more probable in the presence of the stimulus or situation as a result of having been reinforced in the presence of another stimulus or situation –Physical similarity –Stimuli in common-element class –Stimuli in equivalence class

4. Response Generalization Behavior more probable in the presence of a stimulus or situation as a result of another behavior having been strengthened in the presence of that situation –Considerable physical similarity of responses –Minimal physical similarity of responses –Functionally equivalent responses Different responses that produce the same consequences –Cooking dinner – different methods, food produced Behavioral momentum – as a result of reinforcement, probability of other functionally equivalent responses increases

5. Programming Two important situations: –Training situation –Target situation – where we want the generality to occur The more physically similar the training and the target situations are, the more stimulus generalization will occur

6. Programming Operant Stimulus Generalization Train in the target situation –Want the final stages to be in a situation as close to target as possible –Best way  train in target situation Vary the training conditions –Greater variety of stimuli during training means there is greater probability that the stimuli will be present in target situation

7. Programming Operant Stimulus Generalization Program Common Stimuli –Use stimuli that are present in both the training and target settings Train Sufficient Stimulus Exemplars –Training occurs in large number of situations and to large number of stimuli –General case programming

8. Programming Operant Response Generalization Train sufficient response exemplars –Star, stars –Apple, apples, plant, plants Vary the acceptable response during training –Creativity

9. Programming Operant Behavior Maintenance Want behavior to last Depends upon whether behavior will continue to be reinforced Behavioral Trapping –Design program so it matches the contingencies available in natural envinronment –Behavior will be trapped – maintained – by natural environment

10. Programming Operant Behavior Maintenance Change the behavior of people in the environment –Work with people in environment to teach them to reinforce appropriate behaviors Intermittent schedules of reinforcements in target situation Give control to individual –Assess and reinforce own generalized behavior –Recruit a natural community of reinforcement Feedback from people around

11. Pitfalls of Generality Some behaviors should not be generalized –May be inappropriate in some situations Sometimes learning fails to be generalized