Breadcrumb: BCBA › Target configuration

Configure generalization for a target

Set the contexts a target must generalize across, how many must pass and by how many aides, and what happens when generalization is complete or the learner regresses.

Applies toBCBAOrg Owner

A target in generalization is tested beyond the setting where it was learned: at home, at school, with a new therapist or new materials. Each of these is a context. You list the contexts, decide how many must pass and by how many different aides, and choose whether the target moves to maintenance on its own when generalization is complete. In a clinic that uses Granular collection you also decide the order of the contexts and when a drop in performance counts as a regression.

Before you start

You do this in the web app, as a BCBA or an org owner.
What the settings show depends on your clinic's Generalization & Maintenance Collection setting. In Simple mode, aides record a pass or fail for each context. In Granular mode, they run the target's full collector in each context and ABACare scores the run, and the settings add Regression Criteria, Context sequencing and Regression policy. Generic targets never show these.

Open the generalization settings

After a status change. When you move a single target to Generalization from the Goals tab, Generalization Settings opens by itself.
From the goals list. A target in generalization with no contexts shows Needs Configuration. Select it.
From the target's details page. In the Generalization section, select Configure. This works at any status, so you can prepare the contexts before the target gets there.

Once a target has contexts, the goals list no longer offers the settings. Use the details page to change them.

Add and arrange contexts

Under Generalization Contexts, type a Label, for example "At school", and an optional Description.
Select Add Context, or press Enter. Context added appears and the context shows Not Tested.
To change a context, select its pencil, edit the text and confirm with the check mark, or cancel with the X. A description can be changed but not emptied.
To remove a context, select its bin and confirm Remove this context?. You cannot remove a context that already has granular runs, or any context while a regression suggestion is waiting on the target.
To change the order, drag a context by its handle. The order saves straight away. It matters when contexts are worked in sequence.

As aides work the contexts, each shows No Passes Yet, Partially Passed or Passed, how many aides passed it (for example 1/2 RBTs passed) and how many failed.

The Generalization Settings window of a DTT target with two contexts, the completion criteria and the regression criteria — Contexts and criteria for generalization.

Set when generalization is complete

These settings show once the target has a context.

Contexts required to advance: how many contexts must pass. Leave it empty for All contexts.
RBTs required to pass each context: how many different aides must pass a context before it counts as passed.

Set regression and the order of contexts (Granular only)

Under Regression Criteria, set the floor, for example Regression floor (% correct) for a DTT target, and Consecutive sessions below floor. Fill in both or neither. The floor must be worse than the target's mastery threshold. A half-filled pair is dropped when you close the window, with Incomplete regression criteria were discarded.
Under Context sequencing, choose At-will to let aides test any context, or In-sequence to have them work the contexts in list order. With In-sequence, set the number of contexts required to all of them, or a warning reminds you.

Choose what happens automatically

Under Auto-Transition Settings:

Gen → Maintenance: Off leaves the move to you, Suggest sends you a suggestion to review, and Auto moves the target to maintenance by itself.
Regression policy (Granular only): the same three choices for a regression. It stays disabled until regression criteria exist, and the hint under it says Set regression criteria first.

Every change saves by itself; there is no save button. Select Close when you are done. If a change cannot be saved, it goes back to the last saved value and an error appears.

What happens next

The target's Generalization section shows the contexts and Advance at 2 of 3 contexts, or your numbers. In a Granular clinic it also shows the sequencing and the regression policy, and with In-sequence the context to work now is marked Current.
Aides see the contexts when they collect the target: see Collect a granular generalization run and Record a generalization or maintenance pass or fail.
Whether generalization is complete, and in a Granular clinic each context's standing and any regression, is checked when a session with the target is completed, not when you save. When enough contexts have passed, the target moves or you get a suggestion, as you chose. With Auto, a regression in a Granular clinic reopens the previous context when contexts are worked in sequence, and otherwise moves the target back to Active.
To give one context its own measurement or mastery settings, see Override mastery for a context or maintenance.

The Generalization section of a target's details page with its contexts, their standing and the Advance at 2 of 3 contexts summary — Generalization on the target's details page.