Behavioral cusp

A behavioral cusp is any behavior change that brings an organism's behavior into contact with new contingencies that have far-reaching consequences.^[1] A behavioral cusp is a special type of behavior change because it provides the learner with opportunities to access (1) new reinforcers, (2) new contingencies (3) new environments, (4) new related behaviors (generativeness^[2]), (5) competition with archaic or problem behaviors, and it (6) impacts the people around the learner, and (7) these people agree to the behavior change and support its development after the intervention is removed.

The concept has far reaching implications for every individual, and for the field of developmental psychology, because it provides a behavioral alternative to the concept of maturation and change due to the simple passage of time, such as developmental milestones. The cusp is a behavior change that presents special features when compared to other behavior changes.

• 2 Properties of a behavioral cusp
• 2.1 New reinforcers
• 2.2 New contingencies of reinforcement
• 2.3 New environments
• 2.4 Generativeness
• 2.5 Competition with archaic behaviors
• 2.6 Impact on stakeholders
• 2.7 Social validity

• Rosales-Ruiz and Baer (1997) offered a “different but comparable concept that can be derived from the most basic mechanisms of behavior analysis, which are its environmental contingencies, and from its most basic strategy, which is to study behavior as its subject matter” (Rosales-Ruiz and Baer, 1997, p.1.) This different and comparable concept is the behavioral cusp. A cusp is a socially significant behavior change that allows an individual access to new reinforcers, contingencies, and environments that lead to further important behavior changes and that have an impact on the people within the individual’s verbal community (Baer & Rosales-Ruiz, 1997.) To compare developmental stages and behavioral cusps using a metaphoric example, the development or emergence of behavioral stages occurs in a linear format or fashion, whereas with the behavioral cusp it is more “…like the branches of a tree: They stem from an earlier branch or trunk, and new branches may stem from them, where their structure in conjunction with the environment allows for that. But their mutual order, size, and probability of twigs are not very thoroughly predetermined” (Baer & Rosales-Ruiz, 1997.)

  Bosch and Fuqua (2001) suggested a set of socially significant behavioral cusp guidelines that may assist behavior analysts and other professionals in identifying appropriate target behaviors when designing programs for individuals with developmental disabilities. Specifically, they proposed that the acquisition of a new behavior:

  1. should allow the learner access to new reinforcers, contingencies, and environments
  2. it should be socially valid
  3. generative in that the skill acquired should be a stepping stone to the acquisition of novel behaviors that are not programmed or specifically taught
  4. the new behavior is incompatible with an inappropriate behavior or makes a previous behavior obsolete
  5. should have an impact on individuals within the learner’s verbal community