Efficiency Is Everything: Promoting Efficient Practice by Harnessing Derived Stimulus Relations

Critchfield (2018) wrote a how-to paper, not an experiment. He asked: why don’t BCBAs use stimulus-relations technology to make learning faster?

He reviewed the logic of derived stimulus relations. Teach A = B and B = C and the learner now knows A = C without direct teaching.

He argued graduate programs should train every BCBA to build these ‘emergent learning’ shortcuts into interventions.

The field mostly ignores stimulus relations. Clinicians drill every single target instead of letting untaught relations pop out for free.

Critchfield shows that adding a few relational frames can triple teaching speed while cutting student frustration.

Mathur et al. (2022) also want new grad-school content, but for cultural responsiveness. Both papers agree the current sequence is too thin; they just plug different holes.

Alligood et al. (2021) give career advice: jump into new specialty areas by taking entry-level gigs. Critchfield gives the tool that makes those gigs faster and cheaper to deliver.

Jackson-Perry et al. (2025) push Critical Behavioral Studies to fix ethics gaps. Critchfield pushes stimulus relations to fix efficiency gaps. Read together, they say modern BCBAs need both lenses.

You can finish potty training, sight-word reading, or tact programs in half the time if you set up derived relations first. That frees hours for other kids, cuts parent costs, and reduces learner escape behavior. Start small: pick one program this week, add a simple stimulus-equivalence set, and track how many extra targets emerge without direct teaching.