Topic: Generalization and Maintenance of Behavior

Pages: 2, Double spaced
Sources: 2

Order type: Essay
Subject: Psychology
Academic level: Undergraduate
Style: APA

Order Description

Generalization and discrimination and stimulus control add tremendously to the survival value of learning because environments are always changing. Generalization is the tendency for the effects of learning to spread. In a classic study, Baer, Wolf, and Risley (1968) identified terminology for the ways a behavior may show generality:
1.Across settings and situations known as stimulus generalization, and occurs when responses that have been reinforced in the presence of a specific stimulus occur in the presence of different, but similar stimuli (also referred to as a stimulus class). An example: When your cell phone rings (the stimuli) you have learned to answer the phone by saying “Hello.” At work, the phone on your desk has a different ring tone and when it rings you also pick up the receiver to answer and say “Hello.” The different types of ring tones all belong to the same stimulus class.
2.Across behaviors known as response generalization, and occurs when a similar but different response generalizes and spreads across environments or behaviors. For example, you learn to play and navigate a video game with a joystick controller at an arcade. Later you learn to play the same game on your computer at home, but instead of using a joystick controller to navigate you use your computer keyboard and mouse.
3.Over time known as response maintenance, which is the process of continuing to exhibit a behavior. This is essentially the opposite of forgetting (the focus of Chapter 12).

It is often mistakenly assumed that generalization is an automatic phenomenon, or that behavior will be learned vicariously from observing other’s engaging in behaviors. Parents, teachers, trainers, and managers, for example, need to be aware of the importance of having people perform a skill a number of times in a number of different situations. For example, a child who has learned to stop and look both ways before crossing a street may nevertheless run into the street after a ball. The idea is that reinforcement strengthens a response class, and not just a specific response. When the response class becomes too large it can result in stimulus overgeneralization. This occurs when similar, but distinct stimuli elicit the same response.

How do we learn to produce a certain behavior in presence of one stimulus (i.e., stop in front of a red sign versus a green one)? We do this through stimulus discrimination, which is the tendency for a behavior to occur in certain situations (i.e., in the presence of certain stimuli) but not in others (in the absence of the stimuli). As such, discrimination training can be viewed as the process of defining a response class. Using a stimulus discrimination technique, B. F. Skinner (1951) once taught pigeons to “read.” The pigeons would peck a disk when a sign read, “Peck,” and would not peck when a sign read “Don’t peck. Another example of stimulus discrimination is being able to recognize when people are lying from their facial expressions and other body language.

The term stimulus control is used in stimulus discrimination training and refers to the increased tendency to behave a certain way in one situation but not in another. For example, an individual operating a motor vehicle will usually stop at all red traffic lights, and this tendency is clearly a function of reinforcing and punishing consequences (i.e., increased likelihood that he won’t get into an accident, or get a traffic ticket for running a red light), but the individual can proceed through a red light, and might deliberately do so under certain circumstances (e.g., because he is already late to work).

Behavior change and skill acquisition programs are designed to develop, or increase, the frequency of target behaviors. However, engaging in a behavior now does not necessarily mean that the behavior will continue in the future. Similarly, engaging in a behavior in one setting does not mean that it will occur in other settings. Research has demonstrated that if you do not deliberately plan for learned behaviors to be generalized and maintained they are not likely to happen. For this Assignment, you will explore and apply techniques for generalizing and maintaining behaviors.

To prepare for this Assignment:
•Read Chapter 11 of your course textbook. Consider the relations between generalization, discrimination, and stimulus control.
•Read the assigned Steeg and Sullivan (2009) article.
•Review previous chapters on reinforcement and punishment, if needed.
•For an enhanced understanding of these concepts, you are encouraged to also explore the Optional Learning Resources for this week.
•Examine your own experiences from when you were a high school student and identify factors that worked well for you in maintaining academic behaviors.
•Read the following scenario:
Hazel, a 16-year old high school student, is given plenty of time in her English Composition class to work on writing. However, she usually does not complete her writing assignment within the time allotted during the class period. She rarely completes her English composition homework either.
•Engaging your knowledge of principles of reinforcement and punishment, consider the concepts of generalization, discrimination, and stimulus control, and propose procedures that could increase Hazel’s English composition classwork completion and homework completion behaviors.
•Once Hazel increases her English composition classwork completion and homework completion, consider how Hazel will maintain the positive behavior changes, and how the changes could be applied to other subjects, such as math.

Drawing on your reading of the Steege and Sullivan (2009) article and textbook, complete the following:
1.Explain the procedures you devised that could increase Hazel’s English composition classwork and homework completion.
2.Explain how Hazel will maintain the positive behavior changes, and how the changes could be applied to other subjects, such as math.

Support your Assignment with evidence from the assigned Learning Resources. Provide a reference list for resources you used for this Assignment:
Readings
•Chance, P. (2014). Learning and behavior (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. ?Chapter 11, “Generalization, Discrimination, and Stimulus Control”

•Steege, M. W., & Sullivan, E. (2009). Generalization and maintenance of learned positive behavior. In A. Akin-Little, S. G. Little, M. Bray, & T. Kehle (Eds.), Behavioral interventions in schools: Evidence-based positive strategies (pp. 189–201). Washington, DC: APA Books.
Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.