Generalization

When test driving a new car or when borrowing a friend's car, people successfully navigate the process required to find the ignition switch, to work the clutch and the manual transmission, to locate the turn signal switch, and to operate the radio and CD player. The process may not be flawless, but the experience of having driven numerous cars in the past provides a variety of learning trials for successfully operating ignition switches, clutches, manual transmissions, turn signals, radios, and CD players. Similarly, when students learn to add and subtract numbers with objects and on worksheets in the classroom, we expect them to make change accurately when purchasing items in their community stores or successfully manage time-telling tasks that require adding or subtracting minutes. These examples reflect a process referred to as generalization. Generalization occurs when we use a learned response in new situations that differ from the situations and conditions in which we originally acquired the response.

Examples of generalization in everyday life abound. In addition to a myriad of daily activities, generalization is necessary for basic human survival. Without effective generalization, skills would need to be taught in every conceivable situation in which they ought to occur. Especially for those behaviors that ensure survival (e.g., eating, drinking, accessing shelter), generalization is necessary under ever-changing environmental conditions. Some amount of variability in natural or social conditions is the rule; no two situations are exactly alike. When we teach a child to greet people by establishing eye contact and shaking hands, and this child engages in the same response when meeting any new person, generalization has occurred.

Generalized responding, however, is not always adaptive. A child greeting a stranger in the absence of her parents may occasion unwanted advances. A student who learns to cross streets may endanger him-or herself if this skill generalizes to freeways. To be adaptive, generalization must be taught in a way that results in the use of new skills in appropriate, non-training situations but not in inappropriate nontraining situations. Generalization accounts for much of our learning that is not directly targeted by instruction. If the only knowledge and skills acquired were those taught directly, students would be woefully deficient in adapting to life's ever-changing challenges. Because scientists have long recognized the importance of generalization, it has a rich scientific history and continues to be widely studied. We begin with an overview of the historical development of generalization.