Generalization

What is generalization?

The ability to apply learned skills to different settings, persons, or situations

Behavior is said to have been generalized when what three things are true?

it proves durable over time, it appears in a wide variety of environments, and it spreads to a wide variety of related behaviors

What are the two types of generalization?

stimulus generalization and response

What is stimulus generalization?

antecedent stimulus have a history of evoking a response that has been reinforced, stimuli with similar properties tend to evoke the same response

What is response generalization?

involved the learner engaging in a new response that are functionally equivalent to the previously taught response

What is train and hope?

teach behavior in a preselected setting and hope generalization occurs

What is sequential modification?

teach behavior in setting where target behavior would naturally occur; if generalization doesn’t occur teach in successive conditions

What is program common stimuli?

ensure the same SD exists in both the instructional and generalization setting

What is training loosely?

varying as many of the noncritical dimensions of the antecedent stimulus as possible during instruction and accepting a wide range of correct responses to increase likelihood that skills will generalize to the natural setting

When is training loosely used?

to decrease the chance that your client narrowly discriminates some noncritical stimulus

What is multiple exemplar training?

teach enough response examples: teach varying appropriate response topographies

What is general case analysis?

teach clients all the different stimulus variations and response variations they may come across in the generalization setting

When is general case analysis used?

when teaching similarities of stimuli within a stimulus class and the differences of stimuli within that same stimulus class

What are the two types of contingencies?

Natural and indescriminable 

What are indescriminable contingencies

contingencies that the client can’t predict/discriminate

What are natural contingencies?

using contingencies that are present outside of the teaching situation

What is discrimination?

narrowing stimulus control; occurs when a small spectrum of stimuli bring about a response

What is generalization?

loose stimulus control; occurs when a large spectrum of stimuli occasion certain responses

What is a generalization gradient?

A graph that displays the extent to which behavior that’s been reinforced in the presence of a specific stimulus condition is emitted in the presence of other stimuli

What does a flat generalization graph mean?

no discrimination/high generalization

What does a broad generalization graph mean?

some discrimination/some generalization

What does a narrow generalization graph show?

high discrimination/low generalization