Skip to main content
Log in

Efficiency Is Everything: Promoting Efficient Practice by Harnessing Derived Stimulus Relations

  • Special Section: Education of Behavior Analysts
  • Published:
Behavior Analysis in Practice Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A pivotal skill of practice involves engineering emergent learning. Toward this end, graduate training in applied behavior analysis must emphasize concepts of and research on stimulus relations in order for practitioners to develop these skills.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Notes

  1. The assumption that learning can extend beyond what direct experience teaches is not unique to behavior analysts. Educator John Dewey (e.g., 1933), the Gestalt psychologists (e.g., Kohler, 1927), cognitive psychologists (e.g., Bruner, 1973), and even Aristotle all have commented on the capacity for emergence.

References

  • Azrin, N. H., & Foxx, R. M. (1989). Toilet training in less than a day (Reprint ed.). New York, NY: Pocket Books.

  • Balsam, P. D., Deich, J. D., Ohyama, T., & Stokes, P. D. (1998). Origins of new behavior. In W. O’Donohue (Ed.), Learning and behavior therapy (pp. 403–420). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnes-Holmes, D., Finn, M., MacEnteggert, C., & Barnes-Holmes, Y. (in press). Derived stimulus relations and their role in a behavior-analytic account of human language and cognition. Perspectives on Behavior Science.

  • Bruner, J. S. (1973). Beyond the information given: Studies in the psychology of knowing. New York, NY: Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Critchfield, T. S., & Fienup, D. M. (2008). Stimulus equivalence. In S. F. Davis & W. F. Buskist (Eds.), 21st century psychology (pp. 360–372). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Critchfield, T. S., & Fienup, D. M. (2010). Using stimulus equivalence technology to teach about inferential statistics in a group setting. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 43, 763–768.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Critchfield, T. S., & Twyman, J. T. (2014). Prospective instructional design: Establishing conditions for emergent learning. Journal of Cognitive Education and Psychology, 13, 201–217.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dewey, J. (1933). How we think: A restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the educative process. Boston, MA: D. C. Heath.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dixon, M. R. (2015). The PEAK relational training system: Equivalence module. Carbondale, IL: Shawnee Scientific Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dixon, M. R. (2016). The PEAK relational training system: Transformation module. Carbondale, IL: Shawnee Scientific Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dixon, M. R., Belisle, J., McKeel, A., Whiting, S., Speelman, R., Daar, J. H., & Rowsey, K. (2017). An internal and critical review of the PEAK relational training system for children with autism and related intellectual disabilities, 2014–2017. The Behavior Analyst, 40, 493–521.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dixon, M. R., Reed, D. D., Smith, T., Belisle, J., & Jackson, R. E. (2015). Research rankings of behavior analytic graduate training programs and their faculty. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 8, 7–15.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Dougher, M., Twohig, M. P., & Madden, G. J. (2014). Basic and translational research on stimulus–stimulus relations. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 101, 1–9.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dougher, M. J. (1998). Stimulus equivalence and the untrained acquisition of stimulus functions. Behavior Therapy, 29, 577–591.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dymond, S., & Rehfeldt, R. A. (2000). Understanding complex behavior: The transformation of stimulus functions. The Behavior Analyst, 23, 239–254.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Englemann, S., Haddox, P., & Bruner, E. (1986). Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons. New York, NY: Touchstone.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fienup, D. M., & Critchfield, T. S. (2011). Transportability of equivalence-based programmed instruction: efficacy and efficiency in a college classroom. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 44, 435–450.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Hayes, S. C., Barnes-Holmes, D., & Roche, B. (Eds.). (2001). Relational frame theory: A post-Skinnerian account of human language and cognition. New York, NY: Plenum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koegel, R. L., & Frea, W. D. (1993). Treatment of social behavior in autism through the modification of pivotal social skills. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 26, 369–377.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Kohler, W. (1927). The mentality of apes. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace.

    Google Scholar 

  • Layng, T. V. J., Twyman, J. S., & Stikeleather, G. (2004). Engineering discovery learning: The contingency adduction of some precursors of textual responding in a beginning reading program. The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 20, 99–109.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Rehfeldt, R. A. (2011). Toward a technology of derived stimulus relations. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 44, 109–119.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Rehfeldt, R. A., & Barnes-Holmes, Y. (2009). Derived relational responding: Applications for learners with autism and other developmental disabilities. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sidman, M. (1971). Reading and auditory-visual equivalences. Journal of Speech & Hearing Research, 14, 5–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sidman, M. (1994). Equivalence relations and behavior: A research story. Boston, MA: Authors Cooperative.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sidman, M. (2011). Can an understanding of basic research facilitate the effectiveness of practitioners? Reflections and personal perspectives. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 44, 973–991.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Stewart, I. (2017). RFT as a functional analytic approach to understanding the complexities of human behavior: A reply to Killeen and Jacobs. The Behavior Analyst, 40, 65–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stewart, I., & Roche, B. (2013). Relational frame theory: An introduction. In S. Dymond & B. Roche (Eds.), Advances in relational frame theory: Research & application (pp. 51–72). Oakland, CA: New Harbinger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stokes, T. F., & Baer, D. M. (1977). An implicit technology of generalization. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 10, 349–367.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Walker, B. D., & Rehfeldt, R. A. (2012). An evaluation of the stimulus equivalence paradigm to teach single-subject design to distance education students via blackboard. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 45, 329–344.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Zinn, T. E., Newland, M. C., & Ritchie, K. E. (2015). The efficiency and efficacy of equivalence-based learning: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 48, 865–882.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thomas S. Critchfield.

Ethics declarations

Ethical Approval

This article does not contain studies conducted with any member of Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista, Bacteria, or Archaea, so oversight by an institutional research ethics committee is not applicable.

Informed Consent

Because no primary empirical data were collected from human participants, informed consent is not applicable.

Conflict of Interest

The author declares no conflicts of interest with respect to this article.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Critchfield, T.S. Efficiency Is Everything: Promoting Efficient Practice by Harnessing Derived Stimulus Relations. Behav Analysis Practice 11, 206–210 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-018-0262-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-018-0262-8

Keywords

Navigation