Generalization & Maintenance

Question 1

Behavior Trap

Answer 1

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.

Question 2

Contrived Contingency

Answer 2

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.

Question 3

Contrived Mediating Stimulus

Answer 3

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.

Question 4

General Case Analysis

Answer 4

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).

Question 5

Generalization Across Subjects

Answer 5

Changes in the behavior of people not directly treated by an intervention as a function of treatment contingencies applied to other people.

Question 6

Generalization Probe

Answer 6

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.

Question 7

Generalization Setting

Answer 7

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.

Question 8

Indiscriminable Contingency

Answer 8

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.

Question 9

Instructional Setting

Answer 9

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.

Question 10

Lag Reinforcement Schedule

Answer 10

A schedule of reinforcement in
which reinforcement is contingent on a response being different in some specified way (e.g., different topography)
from the previous response (e.g., Lag 1) or a specified number of previous responses (e.g., Lag 2 or more).

Question 11

Multiple Exemplar Training

Answer 11

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.

Question 12

Naturally Existing Contingency

Answer 12

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.

Question 13

Programming Common Stimuli

Answer 13

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.

Question 14

Response Generalization

Answer 14

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

Question 15

Setting/Situation Generalization

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Teaching Sufficient Examples

Answer 16

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.

Question 17

Response Maintenance

Answer 17

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.

Question 18

Teaching Loosely

Answer 18

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.

Question 19

Generalization

Answer 19

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

Question 20

Overgeneralization

Answer 20

A form of generalization in which a bx has come under the control of a stimulus class that is too broad

Question 21

Faulty Stimulus Control

Answer 21

A form of generalization in which a bx has come under the control of an irrelevant antecedent stimulus

Question 22

Stimulus Equivalence

Answer 22

An accurate response to an untrained and unreinforced stimulus that suddenly appears

Question 23

Contingency Adduction

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Generalization Map

Answer 24

A conceptual framework for combining that various forms of generalized bx change