Response generalization
When a learner performs untrained responses that are functionally similar to a trained response, such as a new way of doing the same thing.
Response generalization means the effect of teaching one response spreads to other responses that serve the same purpose. A child taught to say "I want juice" who also begins to say "Can I have juice?" shows response generalization. So does a client taught to wipe a table in circles who also wipes it clean with back-and-forth strokes.
The new responses are not directly taught or reinforced in training; they appear because they are similar in function to the trained response. This makes response generalization valuable, because everyday life requires flexible behavior rather than one fixed form.
Supervisors encourage response generalization by teaching several different response forms, reinforcing variations that work, and avoiding requiring one exact script when flexibility is the goal. Rote responding, in which a learner always gives exactly the same answer, may be a sign that response generalization needs attention.
An RBT should record and report untrained but appropriate variations the learner uses, because they show the supervisor that the skill is generalizing.
Example and non-example
| Example | A client taught to greet with "Hi, how are you?" begins also greeting with "Hey!" and a wave, which the RBT records in the generalization notes. |
|---|---|
| Non-example | A client taught to say "Hi" to the RBT now says "Hi" to the receptionist. The same response with a new person is stimulus generalization. |
Don't confuse it with
| Stimulus generalization | Stimulus generalization is the same response with new stimuli; response generalization is new forms of the response. |
|---|---|
| Response variation | Response variation is a side effect of extinction in which new forms appear because the old one is no longer reinforced; response generalization is the spread of a trained response to similar untrained ones. |
Test yourself
-
Question 1A client was taught to greet staff by saying "Hi." Without being taught, the client starts greeting the same staff members, in the same clinic, by saying "Hello" and waving. What is this an example of?
Show answer
C: Response generalization. Response generalization is the occurrence of untaught responses that serve the same function as the taught response. The people and setting are the same, but the client now uses new, untaught forms of greeting.
- A: Stimulus generalization would be the taught response occurring with new people, places or materials; here the stimuli are unchanged and the response form is new.
- B: Response maintenance is a taught response continuing over time after teaching ends, not the appearance of new response forms.
- D: Stimulus discrimination is responding differently in the presence of different stimuli, not producing new forms of a response.
Task C.8 · 40-hour curriculum section E
-
Question 2The plan teaches a client three ways to ask for a break: saying "Break, please," handing over a break card and using a sign. Which generalization strategy does this reflect?
Show answer
B: Teaching multiple response examples. Teaching several response forms that serve the same function gives the client more than one way to get a break and promotes response generalization, so the client is less likely to depend on one form that may not work in every situation.
- A: Programming common stimuli concerns the stimuli in teaching and target settings, not the number of response forms taught.
- C: Indiscriminable contingencies concern unpredictable reinforcement schedules.
- D: Sequential modification introduces the intervention setting by setting.
Task C.8 · 40-hour curriculum section E
Answer every question to see your score.
On the RBT exam
This term belongs to task C.8 Generalization in content area C, Behavior Acquisition, which is 19 of the 75 scored questions.