Chaining is an instructional procedure used in
Behavioral psychologyBehaviorism , also called the learning perspective , is a philosophy of psychology based on the proposition that all things which organisms do — including acting, thinking and feeling — can and should be regarded as behaviors...
,
experimental analysis of behaviorThe experimental analysis of behavior is the name given to school of psychology founded by B. F. Skinner, and based on his philosophy of radical behaviorism. A central principle was the inductive, data-driven examination of functional relations, as opposed to the kinds of hypothetico-deductive...
and
applied behavior analysisApplied behavior analysis is the science of applying experimentally derived principles of behavior to improve socially significant behavior. ABA takes what we know about behavior and uses it to bring about positive change . Behaviors are defined in observable and measurable terms in order to...
. It involves
reinforcingIn operant conditioning, reinforcement occurs when an event following a response causes an increase in the probability of that response occurring in the future...
individual responses occurring in a sequence to form a complex behavior. It is frequently used for training behavioral sequences (or "chains") that are beyond the current repertoire of the learner. The term is often credited to the work of B.F. Skinner, an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
PsychologistA psychologist is someone who studies the human mind and behavior. Research psychologists study human perception, cognition, attention, emotion, motivation, personality, behavior and interpersonal relationships...
working at Harvard University in the 1930s. Skinner based most of his work on the research done by Edward Lee Thorndike at Harvard University in the 1890s.
The chain of responses is broken down into small steps using
task analysisTask analysis is the analysis of how a task is accomplished, including a detailed description of both manual and mental activities,task and element durations, task frequency, task allocation, task complexity, environmental conditions, necessary clothing and equipment, and any other unique factors...
.
Chaining is an instructional procedure used in
Behavioral psychologyBehaviorism , also called the learning perspective , is a philosophy of psychology based on the proposition that all things which organisms do — including acting, thinking and feeling — can and should be regarded as behaviors...
,
experimental analysis of behaviorThe experimental analysis of behavior is the name given to school of psychology founded by B. F. Skinner, and based on his philosophy of radical behaviorism. A central principle was the inductive, data-driven examination of functional relations, as opposed to the kinds of hypothetico-deductive...
and
applied behavior analysisApplied behavior analysis is the science of applying experimentally derived principles of behavior to improve socially significant behavior. ABA takes what we know about behavior and uses it to bring about positive change . Behaviors are defined in observable and measurable terms in order to...
. It involves
reinforcingIn operant conditioning, reinforcement occurs when an event following a response causes an increase in the probability of that response occurring in the future...
individual responses occurring in a sequence to form a complex behavior. It is frequently used for training behavioral sequences (or "chains") that are beyond the current repertoire of the learner. The term is often credited to the work of B.F. Skinner, an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
PsychologistA psychologist is someone who studies the human mind and behavior. Research psychologists study human perception, cognition, attention, emotion, motivation, personality, behavior and interpersonal relationships...
working at Harvard University in the 1930s. Skinner based most of his work on the research done by Edward Lee Thorndike at Harvard University in the 1890s.
Procedure
The chain of responses is broken down into small steps using
task analysisTask analysis is the analysis of how a task is accomplished, including a detailed description of both manual and mental activities,task and element durations, task frequency, task allocation, task complexity, environmental conditions, necessary clothing and equipment, and any other unique factors...
. Parts of a chain are referred to as links. The learner's skill level is assessed by an appropriate professional and is then either taught one step at a time while being assisted through the other steps forward or backwards or if the learner already can complete a certain percentage of the steps independently, the remaining steps are all worked on during each trial total task. A verbal stimulus or prompt is used at the beginning of the teaching trial. The stimulus change that occurs between each response becomes the reinforcer for that response as well as the prompt/stimulus for the next response without requiring assistance from the teacher. For example, in purchasing a soda you pull the money out of your pocket and see the money in your hand and then put the money in the machine. Seeing the money in your hand both was the reinforcer for the first response (getting money out of pocket) and was what prompted you to do the next response (putting money in machine).
As small chains become mastered, i.e. are performed consistently following the initial discriminative stimulus prompt, they may be used as links in larger chains. [Ex. teach hand washing, tooth brushing, and showering until mastered and then teach morning hygiene routine which includes the mastered skills]. Chaining requires that the teachers present the training skill in the same order each time and is most effective when teachers are delivering the same prompts to the learner. The most common forms of chaining are backward chaining, forward chaining, and total task presentation.