Generalization of teacher behavior as a function of subject matter specific discrimination training.
Train in each subject if you want teacher praise to stick there.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Horton (1975) trained teachers to give more behavior-specific praise.
Each teacher got instructions, practice, and audio feedback.
The training happened only during math or reading lessons.
What they found
Praise went up in the subject that was trained.
Praise stayed flat in the other subject.
Generalization did not happen across school subjects.
How this fits with other research
Olaff et al. (2025) later showed full BST can make skills jump to new programs and rooms.
Clayton et al. (2019) got the same jump with only a 10-minute package.
The gap is not a contradiction: Horton (1975) skipped the generalization piece that later studies added.
Ampuero et al. (2025) trimmed the package even more, proving brief feedback can match full BST for paraeducators.
Why it matters
If you want a teacher to praise across every subject, train in every subject or add generalization steps.
Use later brief packages to save time, but still rehearse each context you need.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The effect of training on the rate of behavior-specific praise for two fourth-grade teachers was investigated within a multiple-baseline design. Training teachers to identify instances of behavior-specific praise on videotaped presentations (discrimination training) combined with instructions to use praise, and audiotape recordings of the teachers' classroom interactions as feedback, increased the rates of behavior-specific praise. However, the effects were restricted to subject-matter areas in which training was conducted.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1975 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1975.8-311