RBT · Behavior Acquisition · 7 min read
Generalization Across People and Settings
- Distinguish between stimulus generalization, response generalization, and generalization across people and settings.
- Describe how to implement multiple exemplar training, teaching loosely, and programming common stimuli according to the supervisor's written plan.
- Explain the procedure for conducting generalization probes, recording objective data, and maintaining the RBT role without independently modifying interventions.
Understanding Generalization: Concepts and Classifications
In behavior analysis, learning is most valuable when a client can use a target skill in everyday life rather than only during structured practice. Generalization includes using a learned response with new people, materials, or settings (stimulus generalization) and using new, untrained responses that serve the same function as a trained response (response generalization). If a skill occurs only with one technician in one room, that skill has not yet been demonstrated across people or settings. Ensuring that a behavior expands beyond initial teaching conditions is a primary focus of skill acquisition.
To understand how skills expand, Registered Behavior Technicians must differentiate between two main categories: stimulus generalization and response generalization. Stimulus generalization occurs when a response trained in the presence of one stimulus occurs in the presence of novel, similar stimuli. In contrast, response generalization occurs when a learner emits novel, untrained responses that achieve the same function as the trained response. When the same learned response occurs with new people or in new settings, that is stimulus generalization; a learner may also show response generalization in those situations.
Consider an everyday instructional example. A technician might teach a learner to identify an image of a canine. If the client only identifies one specific picture of a dog as 'dog,' the concept has not generalized across stimulus exemplars. However, if the client is taught to respond to that single photo and then successfully identifies an untrained photo of a different breed, stimulus generalization has occurred. As an RBT, your role is to follow the written plan to help expand these behaviors across relevant stimuli.
| Classification | Definition | Clinical Example |
|---|---|---|
| Stimulus Generalization | A response trained in the presence of one stimulus occurs in the presence of novel, similar stimuli. | Identifying a novel, untrained picture of a dog after learning with a single initial picture. |
| Response Generalization | A learner emits novel, untrained responses that achieve the same function as the trained response. | Using an untrained, novel greeting variation that serves the same function as the trained greeting. |
| Generalization Across People and Settings | A learned response occurs across different individuals and physical environments; classified as stimulus generalization. | Performing a target skill with a parent or teacher in a classroom or home after practicing with an RBT in a clinic room. |
Common mistakes
- Assuming that a client who masters a skill with one technician in a clinic room has generalized that skill to parents, teachers, or novel settings.
- Delivering standard teaching corrections or corrective feedback during a generalization probe when the written probe protocol prohibits correction procedures.
- Independently modifying instructional steps, selecting new community locations, or adding teaching exemplars after a learner fails a generalization probe, rather than reporting data to the supervisor.
- Introducing untrained caregivers, peers, or novel materials into sessions without supervisor authorization and explicit instructions in the written plan.
Key points
- Generalization can involve a learned response occurring with new people, materials, or settings, or new responses serving the same function as a trained response; performing the same learned response with new people or in new settings is stimulus generalization.
- A skill demonstrated with only one technician in a single room has not yet been shown to generalize across people or settings; the supervisor's plan identifies which other people, such as caregivers or teachers, are relevant to that goal.
- Practicing across clinic rooms, homes, schools, and community locations promotes generalization across differing environmental variables like background noise, visual distractions, and seating arrangements.
- Multiple exemplar training varies stimulus features or instructional phrasing, while teaching loosely varies non-critical elements such as tone of voice, seating, and time of day according to the written plan.
- Programming common stimuli incorporates shared cues, such as portable visual schedules, consistent token boards, graphic organizers, and portable visual timers, across training and natural environments.
- During generalization probes, RBTs follow the written instructions for prompts, feedback, and reinforcement, record objective data, and do not independently alter intervention procedures.
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