PS560 Discussion
Planning for Generalization Through Stimulus Control
Complete the readings before you attempt the discussion question.
Identify a personal behavior that you would like to increase, perhaps revisiting a New Year's resolution that you've made in the past that you haven't been able to keep. By referencing the information you've learned so far, discuss some reasons why you think the behavior hasn't generalized or been maintained over time. Then, consider how you might plan for stimulus control over your desired behavioral response(s). What are some methods that you can discuss for more successful maintenance and generalization of your behaviors over time, settings, and situations?
Review two of your classmate's responses using following ideas as a guide:
- Provide constructive feedback on your peer's plan for increasing the desired behavior – is the concept of stimulus control applied correctly? In either case, provide an additional example.
- Is stimulus control a factor in the discussion on maintenance and generalization? Provide constructive feedback or an alternate suggestion.
- Ask at least one thoughtful follow up question. Reply to Natasha Fields: A behavior that I have and would like to be more proactive vs reactive in all areas of my life, work, social life , family, school. I have in fact made this a new year’s resolution more than once in my life. This behavior has been hard to continue and keep consistently because by procrastinating is usually coming with an instant reinforcer.If we are speaking in terms of what we have learned and ABA, the behavior has not generalized because of weak stimulus control. If I am in a place where there is any kind of distraction, my avoidance behavior takes over or a distractor makes me go down a rabbit hole in terms of my thought process and everything else I have going on and need to do at that moment in time.I could do a few things to increase stimulus control in my favor, I could create a consistent routine for the work and items I want to do by starting tasks at the same time and place every day.I could implement immediate reinforcement for starting things immediately taking a break after finishing a percentage of a task or even an entire task if it’s short or a “quick win”. By practicing this behavior over time, and in alternate settings, the behavior could increase and would be generalized as normal behavior and be sustainable long term (Cooper, 2020).Overall, adjusting environmental variables and strengthening reinforcement for task start can help decrease procrastination and increase consistent productivity for my goals and my to dos, hopefully this process and the functionality of it being that I have a better understanding of behavior now, works in my benefit moving forward. Reference Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2020). Applied behavior analysis (3rd ed.). Pearson. Reply to Ciani Ricks: A personal behavior that I would like to increase is nonfiction reading. I enjoy reading; however, I find myself gravitating toward fiction books or only reading nonfiction articles when it is assigned for class. At the beginning of the year, my goal was to read one of my boyfriend’s motivational books for about five minutes a day. Even though I started strong, the behavior only lasted for about a week before fading out. One issue is that my reading behavior was not under strong stimulus control. According to Cooper et al. (2020), behaviors occur more often in the presence of a discriminative stimulus (SD) than in its absence. I never established a clear or consistent SDs that signaled it was reading time. I read at various times of the day and in various settings. For example, some days I read in bed, other days on the couch, and some days I read in the morning, and others in the evening. Eventually, I would tell myself I can make up for it by reading that night before bed, and with that, my reading began to fade to nonexistent. Without a predictable SD, such as a specific location, time of day, or cue, my reading never came under reliable stimulus control, making it easy for the routine to fade.Another key issue was the lack of reinforcement. The book I chose was random and not something that I found interesting. So, I didn’t enjoy the book I chose, which meant there was little natural reinforcement for continuing the behavior. Without reinforcement, the behavior was unlikely to maintain over time. According to Cooper et al. (2020), a SD will only evoke a behavior because its presence has been correlated with the differential availability of an effective reinforcer. I missed the step of emphasizing the importance of reinforcement. To improve this habit, more meticulous planning for stimulus control is required. One strategy is to select a more consistent SD, such as reading in the living room on my favorite comfy couch. Over time, that environment can become the cue that evokes my reading behavior. I could also use response prompts. For example, setting a daily phone reminder or placing the book on my windowsill next to my favorite couch. Gradually, I could fade these cues as the environment itself begins to evoke the behavior. Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2020). Applied behavior analysis (3rd ed.).Pearson.