Abstract
We reviewed five behavior-analytic concepts related to development: behavioral trap, cumulative-hierarchical learning (CHL), basic behavioral repertoire (BBR), pivotal behavior, and behavioral cusp. We searched for terminological variations of the concepts in the CAPES Journals Portal and selected for analysis 31 peer-reviewed articles written in English or Portuguese, published between 1967 and 2021, that contained the search terms in the title, abstract, or keywords and contextualized in the main text. We analysed the conventional usage of the concepts, their conceptual limitations, and the relationships among them, declared or implied, and proposed a conceptual integration of the concepts under a CHL framework, following a path indicated by other authors. We considered BBR, pivotal behavior, and behavioral cusp nonsynonymous concepts of the same logical category, referring to prerequisites for important developmental outcomes and targets of CHL-inspired interventions but defined by different effects on subsequent behavioral development. The three concepts can be conflated in a superset–subset fashion, based on the specificity of their effects: BBR consists of a broad class of behaviors that may affect subsequent learning; the subclass of BBRs characterized by far-reaching collateral effects are classified as pivotal behavior, and the subclass of pivotal behaviors whose potential effects include contact with unprecedented environmental contingencies are classified as behavioral cusps. We propose that behavioral traps be explicitly incorporated in the CHL framework, to emphasize the environmental component of the cumulative-hierarchical learning process. Our formulation seems to organize the conceptual field in a way that respects the conventional use of concepts, preserving their strengths. Regardless of the specific formulation, we believe that integrating the various development-related concepts within a cumulative-hierarchical learning framework can encourage a more proactive integration of findings, questions, and practices informed by each concept, which could lead to the mutual refinement of the corresponding conceptual and methodological frameworks, as well as new research questions and practical applications. In particular, we expect that explicitly incorporating behavioral traps within the CHL framework will provide a useful heuristic model to guide research on how natural environmental contingencies influence the systematic transformation of behavior across the lifespan.
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Notes
In the context of intervention with severely disabled individuals, self-initiation refers to the participant initiating tasks and activities (Shukla et al., 1995) or verbal interaction with other people (Bosch & Hixson, 2004; Koegel et al., 2003) with reduced need of directive behavior from support persons. The authors give as examples a participant’s behavior of taking her clothes to the laundry or sitting at the table for meals; and as examples of verbal interaction the behavior of asking questions and using pronouns and words that direct the interlocutor’s attention.
CAPES stands for Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, the Brazilian Agency for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel.
Year of the publication introducing the oldest concept analyzed, behavioral trap.
Considering that BBR is said to serve as an independent variable with respect to subsequent learning (e.g., Lund, 2001), describing BBR as a "cause" of behavior may imply that the acquisition of behavior indicative of a BBR is functionally related to the acquisition of other behaviors.
According to Morgan et al. (2021), the term bidirectional naming refers to the integration between listener and speaker repertoires and, in the context of VBDT, it is identified as “one of the speaker-as-own-listener cusps that are bidirectional operants . . . demonstrated when in the individual behaves as listener to their own speaker behavior” (pp. 368–369).
Although Robertson (2015) uses the term problem behavior, we prefer disruptive behavior for behaviors that can harm the individual, restrict learning opportunities, or harm caregivers or interveners.
This concept refers to the teaching of academic repertoires, characterized by the possibility of recombination for the emergence of more complex academic abilities (Johnson & Lyang, 1992, as cited in Bosch & Hixson, 2004). Bosch and Hixson (2004) present the concept, highlighting its proximity to behavioral cusps and CHL. It can be said that the term generative instruction would be equivalent to intervention on behavioral cusps concerning academic repertoires, in particular.
Although the concept of BBR appears as part of causal explanations similar to those formulated from inferred processes, in cognitive theories (as also criticized by Holth, 2003), it is not clear where this occurs in the literature on behavioral cusps. At least, it does not appear to be an explicit proposition by Rosales-Ruiz and Baer (1997).
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This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) through a scholarship to the first author (Finance Code 001). Data in this article have been partially presented by the first author as a final report of her master’s degree under the supervision of the fourth and fifth authors.
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Jiménez, É.L.d.O., Tsutsumi, M.M.A., Laurenti, C. et al. Integrative Review of Developmental Behavior-Analytic Concepts. Perspect Behav Sci 45, 863–899 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40614-022-00360-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40614-022-00360-z