Advancing and Integrating the Cusp Concept to Understand Behavioral Repertoire Dynamics
Run every potential target through the four-check cusp schema to pick skills that open brand-new contingency worlds for your client.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Becker et al. (2024) built a new map for spotting and planning behavioral cusps. A cusp is a small skill that suddenly opens a giant new world of rewards.
The paper is pure theory. No kids, no trials, just a fresh schema any BCBA can draw on a whiteboard.
What they found
The team shows how to line up four checks: the new skill must contact new contingencies, ripple into other behaviors, matter in the client’s culture, and be maintainable.
If all four lights turn green, you have a cusp. Target it first and everything else gets easier.
How this fits with other research
Shearn et al. (1997) first named the cusp idea. Becker keeps the heart but adds the culture box. The old paper never told you to test if the community actually rewards the skill.
Hugh-Pennie et al. (2022) proved cultural fit matters in classrooms. Becker folds that same lens into cusp planning, so the two papers now talk to each other.
Taylor et al. (2023) shift case conceptualization to client risks and values. Becker shifts cusp selection to client contingencies and values. Same move, different tool.
Why it matters
Next time you write a plan, run the four-check schema before you pick target behaviors. Circle the ones that unlock new reinforcers in the client’s real world. You will stop wasting hours on “useful” skills that sit unused because nobody around the client cares.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The behavioral repertoire grows and develops through a lifetime in a manner intricately dependent on bidirectional connections between its current form and the shaping environment. Behavior analysis has discovered many of the key relationships that occur between repertoire elements that govern this constant metamorphosis, including the behavioral cusp: an event that triggers contact with new behavioral contingencies. The current literature already suggests possible integration of the behavioral cusp and related concepts into a wider understanding of behavioural development and cumulative learning. Here we share an attempted step in that progression: an approach to an in-depth characterization of the features and connections underlying cusp variety. We sketch this approach on the basis of differential involvement of contingency terms; the relevance to the cusp of environmental context, accompanying repertoire, or response properties; the connections of particular cusps to other behavioral principles, processes, or concepts; the involvement of co-evolving social repertoires undergoing mutual influence; and the ability of cusps to direct the repertoire either toward desired contingencies or away from a growth-stifling repertoire. We discuss the implications of the schema for expanded applied considerations, the programming of unique cusps, and the need for incorporating cultural context into the cusp. We hope that this schema could be a starting point, subject to empirical refinement, leading to an expanded understanding of repertoire interconnectivity and ontogenetic evolution.
Perspectives on Behavior Science, 2024 · doi:10.1007/s40614-023-00389-8