Gradual Change Procedures in Behavior Analysis

A wide variety of procedures within behavior analysis use gradual change in stimuli, response requirements, reinforcement, or some combination thereof, to effectively change behavior. Such procedures include shaping, thinning, fading, and chaining. Collectively, gradual change procedures represent a conceptually systematic technology of behavior change with wide-ranging empirical support across diverse settings and contexts. However, navigating the gradual change literature can be challenging. Similar terms are used to describe functionally distinct procedures (e.g., stimulus fading, delay fading, demand fading), and distinct terms are used to describe functionally similar procedures (e.g., leaning, demand fading). I propose a taxonomy in which gradual change procedures are categorized according to the functional component of the contingency on which they act. Three broad categories are proposed: Gradual Changes in Discriminative Stimuli, Response Requirement, and Reinforcement. I provide examples of research in each category, across basic and applied settings, including terminology used by the author(s) to describe each procedure. Finally, I discuss benefits of this framework for consumers of the literature.