Behavior By Design

Welcome back to Behavior by Design! As always, thank you for stopping by and continuing to follow along as I share what I’m learning at UMass Global and how those concepts connect with my work in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis.

Last week, we explored emergent relations and the fascinating idea that learning can extend beyond what is directly taught. This week, our focus shifted from how new learning emerges to something we experience every single day: choice.

Why do we choose one restaurant over another? Why do we reach for our phones when we should probably be studying? Why might a learner continue engaging in a challenging behavior even after being taught a more appropriate alternative?

Behavior analysis gives us an interesting way to think about these questions through a principle called the Matching Law.

So, What Is the Matching Law?

The Matching Law describes how we tend to allocate our behavior among available response options based on the reinforcement those options produce. Put simply, we tend to do more of what works for us.

When two or more behaviors are available, the amount of responding allocated to each option tends to correspond with the relative reinforcement obtained from that option. Reinforcement that is more frequent, immediate, higher quality, or requires less effort can influence which response we choose.

And once I started thinking about the Matching Law this week, I realized just how often we can see this principle playing out in everyday life.

Imagine you have two coffee shops near your house. Both make your favorite drink, but one consistently has a shorter line, remembers your order, and gets your drink right. Assuming everything else is relatively equal, which one are you more likely to visit?

Probably the one that has historically provided the better experience.

That’s response allocation in action.

Response Allocation: Where Does Our Behavior Go?

Response allocation simply refers to how we distribute our behavior among the different options available to us.

Think about how you spend an hour of free time. You could read, exercise, watch television, scroll through social media, call a friend, or take a nap. You technically have several options available, but you’re probably not going to divide your time equally among all of them.

Your previous experiences with each activity matter.

If checking social media provides immediate and frequent reinforcement while studying produces a payoff that feels much further away, it’s not difficult to understand why your phone might win that competition more often than you’d like!

Looking at behavior this way also moves us away from simply saying someone “doesn’t want to” make a better choice. Instead, we can ask a more useful question:

What reinforcement is available for each response?

That question becomes especially important in clinical ABA.

When Appropriate and Challenging Behaviors Compete

One thing that stood out to me this week is how useful the Matching Law can be when thinking about replacement behaviors.

Imagine a learner engages in aggression when presented with a difficult task. Historically, aggression has resulted in the task being removed and the learner getting a break.

We then teach the learner to appropriately say “Break, please.”

Great! We’ve taught a functionally appropriate alternative.

But there’s a problem.

What happens if requesting a break only works occasionally, while aggression continues to result in an immediate escape from the task?

From the learner’s perspective, aggression may still be the more effective response.

This is why teaching a replacement behavior alone isn’t necessarily enough. We also have to consider the reinforcement available for that behavior compared with the reinforcement available for competing behaviors.

If an appropriate break request consistently produces a brief break quickly while aggression no longer produces the same reinforcement, the environment begins favoring the appropriate response. Over time, we would expect the learner to allocate more responding toward appropriately requesting a break.

And I think that’s such an important perspective.

Instead of only asking, “How do we stop this behavior?” we can also ask:

“How do we make the appropriate behavior more effective and worthwhile for the learner?”

Reinforcement Schedules Matter

This week’s learning also brought us back to schedules of reinforcement, but from a different perspective.

When multiple response options are available simultaneously, each may operate according to its own reinforcement schedule. These are known as concurrent schedules.

For example, imagine a child can choose between two activities. Playing with one toy frequently results in adult interaction, while playing with another rarely receives attention. If attention is reinforcing for that child, we may see them spend more time engaging with the first toy.

The Matching Law helps us understand why behavior may become distributed unevenly across those options.

We also revisited other compound schedules, including multiple and mixed schedules. In a multiple schedule, different reinforcement schedules alternate and each is associated with a distinct stimulus. In a mixed schedule, the schedules also alternate, but there is no distinct stimulus signaling which schedule is currently in effect.

Understanding these arrangements helps us appreciate just how much the environment and particularly the availability of reinforcement can influence behavior.

Bringing It Back to Clinical Practice

What I appreciate about concepts like the Matching Law is that they encourage us to look beyond the behavior we’re observing and examine the contingencies surrounding it.

When we’re teaching communication, independence, social skills, or other replacement behaviors, we have to ask whether those responses actually work for the learner.

Is reinforcement immediate enough?

Is it valuable enough?

Is the appropriate response relatively easy to perform?

And perhaps most importantly, does the challenging behavior still produce a better outcome?

These are important questions because meaningful behavior change isn’t simply about telling someone which response they should choose. It’s about arranging the environment so that appropriate behaviors have a meaningful opportunity to compete successfully with less desirable alternatives.

That’s one of my biggest takeaways from this week’s learning: choice doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

Our behavior is constantly interacting with the consequences available in our environment, and understanding that relationship gives behavior analysts another powerful tool for designing effective, individualized interventions.

Final Exams Are Here!

And just like that, we’re just one week away from the end of another course at UMass Global!

It’s amazing to look back at how much we’ve covered from foundational behavioral concepts to verbal behavior, emergent relations, response allocation, and now the Matching Law. There has been A WHOLE LOT to learn, but seeing how these concepts connect with one another and with what I am experiencing in clinical practice has made the journey incredibly rewarding!

So, wish me luck! I’ll be trading some of my usual writing time for study time next week, and hopefully allocating plenty of my own behavior toward studying. See what I did there? 😊

Thank you again for continuing to read, learn, and grow alongside me here at Behavior by Design. I’ll see you on the other side of finals!

See you soon!

Rose Ally xoxo

Hi there! First of all, I want to start this week’s post by thanking YOU (so much!) for stopping by Behavior by Design! Whether this is your first visit or you’ve been following along since the beginning, I’m truly grateful you’re here. It’s been incredibly rewarding to share both my graduate school journey at UMass Global and my growing experience as a Clinical Supervisor/Program Manager, and I’m excited to see this community continue to grow!

Over the past several weeks at UMass Global, we’ve built a strong foundation in behavior analysis by exploring reinforcement, punishment, stimulus control, and verbal behavior. Each week leaves me even more fascinated by the science behind learning and behavior. This week was no exception as we explored one of my favorite topics so far: Emergent Relations. I love this concept because it demonstrates that effective teaching is about so much more than helping someone memorize information, it’s about helping learners make meaningful connections and discover new knowledge by themselves beyond what they were directly taught.

Learning Beyond Direct Teaching

Think back to when you first learned to read. You probably didn’t memorize every possible combination of letters, words, and pictures individually. Instead, once you learned enough relationships, many new ones seemed to “click.”

This is the idea behind emergent relations.

In behavior analysis, emergent relations occur when a learner demonstrates a new skill or relationship without being directly taught that specific relation. Instead, the new learning emerges because of previously established relationships between stimuli.

For example, imagine a child learns:

• The spoken word “dog” matches a picture of a dog.
• The picture of a dog matches the written word DOG.

Without anyone explicitly teaching it, the child may then correctly match the spoken word “dog” to the written word DOG. This new relationship has emerged from prior learning rather than direct instruction.

To me, this is one of the most exciting aspects of ABA. It shows that good teaching doesn’t just produce isolated skills—it creates opportunities for learners to develop entirely new ones.

Stimulus Equivalence: Making Connections

This week’s coursework also introduced stimulus equivalence, a process through which different forms of the same concept become connected.

Three important components make this possible:

Reflexivity

Reflexivity is recognizing that a stimulus is the same as itself. For example, if a learner is shown a picture of an apple, they can correctly match it to the identical picture without direct instruction.

Symmetry

Symmetry occurs when a learner reverses a previously taught relationship. For instance, if they are taught to match the spoken word “apple” to a picture of an apple, they can later see the picture and say “apple” without being directly taught that reverse relationship.

Transitivity

Transitivity occurs when learners combine two previously learned relationships to derive a completely new one. If they learn that the spoken word “dog” matches a picture of a dog and that the picture matches the written word DOG, they can later match the spoken word directly to the written word—even though that specific relationship was never taught.

Together, these three properties allow different forms of the same concept to become members of an equivalence class. Rather than memorizing isolated facts, learners begin making meaningful connections that support more efficient, flexible, and independent learning. This process is often referred to as generative learning because learners are able to demonstrate new skills and relationships without direct instruction.

As someone working in the field of ABA, I find this especially fascinating because it reinforces the importance of teaching in a way that promotes understanding, not just repetition. Our goal isn’t simply to teach individual responses—we want to create learning experiences that help clients make connections, generalize skills, and apply what they’ve learned across people, settings, and situations.

Bringing It Back to Clinical Practice

Drawing on nearly four years of experience as an RBT, and now stepping into a Clinical role has given me a new perspective on how these concepts influence the way behavior analysts design effective instruction and promote meaningful learning.

Rather than asking, “How can I teach this one skill?” we’re encouraged to think more broadly:

• What prerequisite skills does the learner already have?
• Can today’s teaching lead to additional learning tomorrow?
• How can we arrange instruction so learners begin making connections on their own?

These questions reflect the thoughtful, evidence-based approach that makes behavior analysis such a rewarding field.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to support Behavior Technicians through coaching, modeling treatment procedures, reviewing data collection, and updating clinical programming as clients master skills and move on to new learning targets. It’s rewarding to see how the concepts I’m studying are directly informing my clinical decision-making and helping me become a more effective in my role.

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned so far is that meaningful progress isn’t measured solely by the number of programs a client completes. It’s reflected in their ability to use those skills independently, across different environments, and in ways that improve their quality of life. Emergent learning is a perfect example of this philosophy—it demonstrates that effective teaching can produce learning that extends well beyond what was directly taught.

The Journey Continues

Next week, we’ll be learning about Matching Law and its role in understanding how behavior is allocated across available response options. We’ll explore how the frequency of our choices is often influenced by the history and rate of reinforcement associated with each option, and how this principle helps behavior analysts better understand decision-making in both clinical practice and everyday life.

I’m looking forward to learning more about how the Matching Law can be applied to promote meaningful behavior change and optimize intervention strategies. As always, I’ll be sharing my reflections and key takeaways here on Behavior by Design.

Until next time, thank you for following along on this journey through graduate school and clinical practice. Every week reinforces that behavior analysis is about so much more than changing behavior—it’s about understanding how people learn, make connections, make choices, and develop the skills they need to communicate, grow, and thrive.

See you next week!

Rose Ally xoxo

If you’ve spent any time outdoors in Los Angeles this week, you’ve probably noticed one thing….it has been hot. And I don’t mean your typical Southern California summer weather.

Like many Angelenos, I’ve been carrying a water bottle everywhere, trying to stay indoors during the hottest parts of the day, and appreciating air conditioning more than ever.

The heat has really changed what people are doing, where they are going, and even what they are talking about. Suddenly, conversations revolve around staying cool, checking the weather forecast, and making sure everyone was drinking enough water. The environment wasn’t just affecting our actions, it is influencing our communication. I’m sure by now you can see how I’m trying to connect the influence of the environment on our verbal behavior! Which actually pretty fitting since verbal behavior has been the topic of learning for the last two weeks at my program at UMASS Global.

Continuing Our Journey Through Verbal Behavior

Last week, I introduced two of Skinner’s elementary verbal operants: mands and tacts. We learned that communication isn’t simply about what people say, but why they say it.

This week, we expanded that foundation by exploring echoics, intraverbals, textual behavior (codics), and multiple control. Each of these concepts adds another layer to understanding how communication develops and how behavior analysts can teach functional language.

Echoics: Learning Through Imitation

Echoic behavior occurs when a learner repeats what another person says with point-to-point correspondence and formal similarity.

If a therapist says, “Ball,” and the learner repeats, “Ball,” that’s an echoic response.

Although it sounds simple, echoic behavior is one of the building blocks of spoken language. Many children first learn new words by imitating the people around them. In ABA, we often use echoic training to help learners develop clearer, more functional communication that can later be shaped into mands, tacts, and other verbal operants.

Intraverbals: The Foundation of Conversation

One of my favorite concepts this week was intraverbal behavior.

Unlike echoics, intraverbals don’t involve repeating exactly what someone else says. Instead, they’re responses to verbal stimuli without point-to-point correspondence.

Examples include:

• “What color is the sky?” → “Blue.”
• “Twinkle, twinkle…” → “…little star.”
• “What did you do this weekend?” → “I went hiking.”

Everyday conversations rely heavily on intraverbal behavior. They’re what allow us to answer questions, tell stories, share experiences, and connect with others. It’s amazing to think about how much of our daily social interaction depends on this single verbal operant.

Reading Words Aloud: Codics (Textual Behavior)

We also learned about codics, more commonly referred to in practice as textual behavior.

This occurs when someone reads written words aloud. For example, seeing the written word “Exit” and saying, “Exit.”

Although reading may seem automatic to many adults, it’s actually a complex verbal behavior that requires learners to connect written symbols with spoken language. Understanding how these skills develop gives behavior analysts another tool for supporting literacy and academic success.

Multiple Control: When Communication Is Influenced by More Than One Thing

Perhaps the most thought-provoking topic this week was multiple control.

One of the biggest takeaways for me was realizing that our communication is rarely controlled by a single variable. Instead, our verbal behavior is often influenced by several factors at the same time.

Take this week’s heat wave as an example.

Imagine you’re walking outside on a 102-degree afternoon and see someone selling ice-cold bottled water.

You might immediately say, “Can I have water?”

That simple request isn’t happening for just one reason.

Your verbal behavior is influenced by:

• The motivating operation—you’re hot and thirsty, making water highly valuable.
• The nonverbal stimulus—you can actually see the water for sale.

Together, those variables influence your communication. That’s an example of convergent multiple control.

On the other hand, if someone simply asked,

“How are you staying cool this week?”

You could respond in several different ways:

• “I’m staying indoors.”
• “I’ve been drinking lots of water.”
• “I’ve had the AC running nonstop.”
• “I’ve been walking my dog early in the morning.”

One verbal question evokes multiple possible responses—an example of divergent multiple control.

Once you begin thinking about communication through the lens of behavior analysis, you realize just how dynamic and fascinating verbal behavior really is.

Connecting the Classroom to Clinical Practice

One of the reasons I’m enjoying graduate school so much is that the concepts we discuss each week are already showing up in my professional work.

As I continue supporting our Registered Behavior Technicians, I’m seeing firsthand how foundational verbal behavior is to effective intervention. Whether we’re teaching a learner to request a break, imitate a new word, answer questions, or label objects in their environment, we’re helping build skills that lead to greater independence and more meaningful interactions with others.

It’s rewarding to see the science come alive in real clinical settings, and every week reinforces how important it is to understand not just what behavior looks like, but why it occurs.

Keeping Cool Until Next Week

The LA heat may eventually cool down, but my excitement for learning certainly hasn’t!

Every week at UMass Global gives me another opportunity to connect behavioral theory with everyday life, and verbal behavior has quickly become one of my favorite topics. The more I learn, the more I appreciate how incredibly complex and beautifully functional human communication really is.

Next week, we’ll be diving into Emergent Relations and the Matching Law, and you can rest assured that I’ll be sharing another snapshot of what we learn here on Behavior by Design. Whether you’re interested in learning more about ABA, curious about the science of behavior, or simply enjoying following along on my graduate school journey, I hope you’ll stop by for next week’s post!

Until then, stay hydrated, stay cool, and remember: behavior is happening all around us….you just have to know what to look for!

See you next week!

Rose Ally xoxo

One of the things I’m enjoying the most about my studies at UMass Global is how each week builds upon the last. We’ve spent time exploring reinforcement, punishment, motivating operations, stimulus control, and generalization. This week, we started learning about one of the most fascinating areas of behavior analysis: verbal behavior!

When many people think about communication, they think just about words, grammar, or conversation. In ABA, however, communication is viewed from a slightly different perspective. Instead of asking just what someone says, behavior analysts ask why they said it. In other words, what environmental variables influenced that communication?

This week, we focused on two of the most important elementary verbal operants: mands and tacts.

Mands: Communicating Our Wants and Needs

A mand is controlled by a motivating operation and is reinforced by receiving the specific item or outcome that was requested.

Simply put, we ask for things because we want or need them.

Examples include:

• Asking for water when you’re thirsty.
• Requesting a break during a difficult task.
• Saying “Help, please.”
• Asking for a favorite toy.

One thing I appreciate about learning about mands is how naturally they fit into everyday life. We all make requests throughout the day, often without realizing that our behavior is being influenced by motivating operations.

For many learners receiving ABA services, teaching functional mands can dramatically improve communication while reducing challenging behaviors. When individuals learn effective ways to ask for what they need, they often no longer need to rely on behaviors like crying, aggression, or property destruction to communicate.

Tacts: Connecting Language to the World Around Us

Unlike mands, tacts are controlled by nonverbal stimuli and are reinforced by generalized conditioned reinforcers, such as praise, attention, or acknowledgment.

In simple terms, a tact is labeling something in the environment.

Examples include:

• Seeing a dog and saying, “Dog.”
• Looking outside and saying, “It’s raining.”
• Pointing to an airplane and saying, “Airplane!”
• Saying, “That’s a red car.”

Tacts help us share experiences with others and build conversations. They also play an important role in language development because they allow us to describe, identify, and learn about the world around us.

More Than Just Talking

One of the biggest misconceptions about verbal behavior is that it only refers to speech. In reality, verbal behavior includes any form of communication that is reinforced through another person. That could mean speaking, signing, writing, pointing to pictures, or even using a speech-generating device. So what this means essentially is that every request, label, question, and response serves a function, and understanding that function is key to teaching meaningful communication.

Looking Forward: Week 5

As we wrap up another week of learning, I’m excited to continue exploring Skinner’s analysis of verbal behavior in next week’s coursework.

We’ll shift our focus to two additional elementary verbal operants: echoics and intraverbals.

We will be learning how echoic behavior involves repeating verbal stimuli with point-to-point correspondence and formal similarity; essentially, accurately reproducing what another person says. Echoics play an important role in early language development and are often one of the first verbal skills taught in ABA intervention.

We will also be exploring intraverbal behavior, which is the foundation of conversations, social interactions, and academic learning. Unlike echoics, intraverbals are responses to verbal stimuli without point-to-point correspondence. They allow us to answer questions, complete songs and phrases, tell stories, and engage in meaningful back-and-forth conversations.

Understanding how these verbal operants work together provides another piece of the puzzle in helping individuals develop functional, independent communication skills. I’m looking forward to learning how these concepts are applied in both clinical practice and everyday interactions, and I’ll be sharing my reflections here next week.

Until then, thanks for following along on my journey through graduate school! Every week reinforces that behavior analysis is about so much more than behavior reduction….it’s about helping people communicate, connect, and thrive!

See you next week!

Rose Ally xoxo

Last week, I shared the exciting news that I had accepted a new position as a Clinical Supervisor with one of LA’s leading ABA providers. Thank you to everyone who reached out with kind messages and words of encouragement—it truly meant a lot.

This week marked the beginning of that journey, and rather than jumping straight into the field, I spent the week immersed in training. I quickly realized that this organization is committed to setting its clinicians up for success through comprehensive preparation and high clinical standards.

Our training covered a wide range of topics, including clinical programming, skill acquisition, behavior reduction procedures, data-based decision making, documentation, caregiver collaboration, and maintaining treatment integrity. It was evident from day one that every aspect of the training was thoughtfully designed to ensure clinicians are confident, ethical, and equipped to deliver high-quality services.

Now if you’re wondering what a Clinical Supervisor does in an ABA setting, some of the responsibilities include training and mentoring a team of Behavior therapists, developing and updating skill-acquisition and behavior-reduction plans, reviewing client data, monitoring treatment progress, and helping ensure programs are implemented consistently and effectively. The role also involves collaborating with individuals and members of the clinical team to support meaningful, socially significant outcomes for each client.

I have to say, I’m incredibly excited to be joining such a thorough, supportive, and knowledgeable team. The emphasis on collaboration and clinical excellence has only reinforced that I made the right decision. If all goes according to plan, I’ll be heading into the field in about a week, and I can’t wait to begin working directly with clients, supporting families, and continuing to grow as a clinician.

Meanwhile in the Classroom: Motivating Operations and Environmental Variables

Graduate school continues to complement what I’m learning professionally.

This week in my ABA coursework at UMass Global, we explored Motivating Operations (MOs) and Environmental Variables, two concepts that play a critical role in understanding why behavior occurs.

Motivating operations temporarily alter the value of a reinforcer or punisher while also influencing the likelihood of behaviors that have historically produced those consequences. Learning to distinguish between establishing operations, which increase the effectiveness of a reinforcer, and abolishing operations, which decrease it, has given me a deeper appreciation for how motivation shapes behavior from moment to moment.

We also examined environmental variables and the powerful influence that antecedent conditions can have on behavior. It’s another reminder that behavior doesn’t occur in isolation. Understanding the context surrounding behavior often provides the key to developing interventions that are both effective and socially meaningful.

One of the things I enjoy most about this graduate program is seeing the direct connection between theory and practice. Concepts I discuss in class are already appearing in training scenarios and clinical discussions, making the learning process incredibly rewarding.

A Summer Filled with Soccer

Outside of ABA, like millions of people around the world, I enjoyed following the FIFA Club World Cup even though I must admit, I’m not exactly a die hard fan. As someone who spent some of their childhood in Europe, soccer has always been a sport I couldn’t completely ignore, and it has been exciting to watch clubs from different continents compete on such a global stage.

Two players that captured my attention were Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappé. Haaland’s incredible physical presence, clinical finishing, and relentless work ethic make him one of the most dominant strikers in world football. Every time he stepped onto the pitch, you got the sense that he’s capable of changing the game with a single opportunity.

Mbappé, on the other hand, continued to showcase why he is regarded as one of the most exciting players of his generation. His blistering pace, technical ability, and confidence in one-on-one situations made him a constant threat. He also made history by surpassing Lionel Messi to become the all-time leading scorer in men’s FIFA World Cup history, reaching 22 career goals on the tournament’s biggest stage. What an incredible feat! Beyond his talent, I admire the composure and leadership he brings on the biggest stages.

Congratulations to Spain on being crowned FIFA World Cup 2026 champions. It was a fantastic tournament filled with unforgettable moments, emerging stars, and world-class performances!

What’s Happening Next Week

As I prepare to begin working in the field in the upcoming week, I find myself feeling both excited and grateful. Between graduate school and this new role, every week presents another opportunity to learn something new, refine my clinical skills, and become a better practitioner.

Thank you for following along on this journey. I look forward to sharing more about my experiences as a Clinical.

Until next week, keep learning, keep growing, and remember that every meaningful behavior change starts with understanding the variables that influence it!

With respect,

Rose Ally

One of my favorite things about this journey through UMass Global’s Graduate Certificate in Applied Behavior Analysis is that each week builds on the last. Just when I think I’ve wrapped my head around one concept, the next lesson expands my perspective even further.

This week, we explored response maintenance, setting and situation generalization, and response generalization. While these concepts are closely related, each highlights a different aspect of what meaningful learning looks like.

Response Maintenance

Response maintenance refers to a learner’s ability to continue performing a skill over time after teaching has ended or reinforcement has been reduced. In other words, the goal isn’t simply to teach a behavior—it is to ensure the behavior lasts.

This concept reminds me that successful intervention is measured by what happens after the therapist steps back. Whether it’s independently brushing teeth, initiating communication, or completing classroom routines, lasting behavior change is what ultimately improves quality of life.

Setting and Situation Generalization

Setting and situation generalization occur when a learner demonstrates a skill across different environments or situations without needing to be retaught.

For example, a child who learns to greet their teacher at school and then begins greeting neighbors, relatives, or community members is demonstrating generalization. The skill has transferred beyond the original teaching environment.

As someone who has worked in schools, homes, clinics, and group homes, I’ve seen firsthand how important this is. A skill that only works in one setting has limited value. The real goal is helping individuals succeed wherever life takes them.

Response Generalization

Response generalization is slightly different. Instead of performing the exact same behavior in a new setting, the learner begins demonstrating other appropriate behaviors that achieve the same outcome.

For example, after learning to request help by saying, “Help me,” a learner may later begin saying, “Can you help?” or raising their hand appropriately without direct instruction.

I find this concept especially interesting because it shows that learning is flexible. People aren’t simply memorizing responses—they’re adapting and expanding their behavior in meaningful ways.

Seeing the Bigger Picture

One theme continues to emerge throughout this program: effective ABA isn’t about producing perfect responses during teaching sessions. It’s about creating meaningful, lasting behavior change that carries over into everyday life.

The concepts we’ve covered this week reinforce that idea beautifully. When behaviors are maintained over time, generalized across settings, and expanded into new but appropriate responses, learners gain greater independence and confidence. That’s what makes these principles so powerful.

A Special Announcement

I also have some exciting personal news to share.

I’m thrilled to announce that I have accepted a new position as a Clinical Supervisor with a leading ABA organization in the Los Angeles area.

This opportunity represents an exciting next step in my professional journey and aligns perfectly with my long-term goal of becoming a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. I’m incredibly grateful for the experiences that have brought me to this point and excited for the opportunity to continue supporting clients, mentoring behavior technicians, and growing as both a clinician and a leader.

I’ll be sharing more details about the role and what this next chapter looks like in next week’s post, so stay tuned!

Every week in this program reminds me that behavior analysis extends far beyond the classroom or therapy session. It’s about helping people build skills they can maintain, adapt, and use throughout their lives.

I’m looking forward to continuing this journey—both as a graduate student and in my new role as a Clinical Supervisor.

See you next week!

Rose Ally

A Different Kind of Fourth of July

This Fourth of July felt like a reminder that sometimes the best celebrations are the simplest ones.

As America celebrated its 250th birthday, I found myself celebrating something just as meaningful: friendship.

I spent the day with one of my oldest friends, someone I’ve known since our days at Brussels English Primary School (BEPS) in Belgium. It’s incredible how life can take us to different countries, careers, and seasons of life, yet some friendships remain as effortless as they were decades ago. Like any friendship that spans decades, we’ve both been a work in progress; between the two of us we’ve gotten married, separated, had a baby, built careers, and lived in different parts of the world. We don’t see each other nearly as often as we’d like, so there was certainly plenty to catch up on. But what struck me was how quickly we fell back into conversation, laughing about old memories from BEPS and picking up where we left off. It reminded me that while time and distance may change the rhythm of a friendship, they don’t have to diminish its value. Spending the day together was a wonderful reminder that some connections are worth holding onto, no matter how many years or miles separate you.

And so instead of big fireworks and crowded barbecues, we chose a quieter celebration. We took a long walk through the park, caught up on life, laughed about old memories, and enjoyed some amazing tacos and listened to lots of heavy metal (LOL!). It was a welcome reminder to slow down, unplug, and appreciate the people who have been part of your story from the very beginning.

Starting Course 2 – Core Concepts in Behavior Analysis

The holiday also marked another milestone for me.

I officially began Course 2: Core Concepts in Behavior Analysis as part of my Graduate Certificate in Applied Behavior Analysis at UMass Global.

Having worked in the field of ABA for more than three years as a Registered Behavior Technician, many of the topics are familiar. I’ve seen these principles applied every day while supporting clients in schools, homes, clinics, and group home settings. What this graduate program is giving me, however, is something deeper: an understanding of the scientific foundations behind the interventions I use in practice.

One concept that especially stood out this week was stimulus control.

In simple terms, stimulus control happens when a behavior is more likely to happen because a specific cue signals that reinforcement is available. While I’ve used visual schedules, token boards, classroom routines, and prompts countless times in my work, it has been fascinating to study the behavioral principles that explain why these strategies are effective.

The more I study behavior analysis, the more I realize that ABA isn’t simply about changing behavior. It’s about understanding the relationship between people and their environment. Every behavior occurs within a context, and understanding how antecedents, consequences, and reinforcement interact provides a much richer perspective on effective intervention.

What’s even more interesting is how these principles appear everywhere outside of work. Restaurant loyalty programs, traffic lights, phone notifications, and even our daily routines all influence behavior in subtle ways. Once you begin looking at the world through the lens of behavior analysis, it’s difficult not to notice it everywhere.

Continuing the Journey…

As I continue through Course 2, I’m excited to strengthen my theoretical foundation while connecting what I’m learning back to the work I do every day with clients. Every class brings me one step closer to becoming a BCBA and reinforces that behavior analysis is not just about interventions. It’s about developing a scientific way of thinking that can improve lives.

Here’s to 250 years of American independence, lifelong friendships that stand the test of time, delicious tacos, and another exciting week of learning!!

See you next week!

Rose Ally

Just like that, I’ve completed the first course out of seven in my Graduate Certificate in Applied Behavior Analysis at UMass Global! It’s hard to believe that eight weeks have already flown by. Looking back, I’m proud of how much I’ve learned not just academically, but in the way I now see behavior all around me.

Our final topic for this course focused on schedules of reinforcement and how different reinforcement schedules influence the frequency and persistence of behavior. While the terminology may sound technical at first, I quickly realized these principles are everywhere in our daily lives.

Celebrating the End of a Chain

One concept that stood out to me this week was the chained schedule of reinforcement. In a chained schedule, reinforcement is delivered only after completing a sequence of responses, with each step leading to the next.

When I thought about my own experience over the past eight weeks, I realized I had been living through one myself.

• Complete Week 1
• Complete Week 2
• Complete Week 3
• …
• Complete Week 8
• Finish the course
• Earn reinforcement

And what’s my reinforcer?

A well-deserved trip for some really good ice cream!!🍦

That little reward represents much more than dessert. It’s a celebration of consistency, discipline, and the successful completion of a meaningful goal. Sometimes the best reinforcement is simply recognizing your own hard work.

Schedules of Reinforcement Are Everywhere

This week’s lessons also reminded me how often reinforcement schedules shape our everyday behavior without us even realizing it.

Think about a loyalty card at your favorite nail salon or coffee shop. After ten visits, you earn a free service. That’s a fixed ratio schedule where reinforcement is delivered after a fixed number of responses.

Or consider checking your email or social media. Sometimes there’s something exciting waiting for you, and sometimes there isn’t. That unpredictability keeps many of us checking throughout the day, an example of a variable ratio or variable interval schedule, depending on the situation.

Even something as simple as saving up reward points through an airline or grocery store follows the same behavioral principles.

Once you begin studying ABA, you start seeing these patterns everywhere.

The Power of Positive Reinforcement

If there is one lesson that has stayed with me throughout this course, it is the incredible power of positive reinforcement.

Positive reinforcement isn’t about bribery or manipulation. It’s about intentionally strengthening behaviors we want to see more often by providing meaningful consequences.

It can be something as simple as:

• Thanking a loved one for helping with household chores.
• Praising a child for raising their hand before speaking.
• Celebrating a coworker’s contributions during a project.
• Rewarding yourself after reaching a personal milestone.

As someone working in the ABA field, I’ve seen firsthand how powerful positive reinforcement can be. Whether it’s a token board in a group home, verbal praise in the classroom, or celebrating a client’s small successes, reinforcement helps build confidence, independence, and lasting behavior change.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway is that reinforcement isn’t just for behavior analysts. It’s something all of us can use to build stronger relationships, healthier habits, and more supportive environments.

So What’s Next?

With Course 1 complete, I’m one step closer to the finish line! I’m excited to continue learning, applying these concepts in practice, and sharing my journey here on Behavior by Design. I’m also actively pursuing a clinical leadership role in ABA that will allow me to accrue the supervised fieldwork hours required for BCBA certification. It’s an exciting next step in my professional journey, and I’m looking forward to continuing to grow as both a practitioner and a future behavior analyst.

If these first eight weeks have taught me anything, it’s that behavior is constantly shaped by our environment and with the right reinforcement, meaningful change is absolutely possible!

Until next week! Stay curious1

Rose Ally

As I continue working through my first course in the Graduate Certificate in Applied Behavior Analysis program at UMass Global, this week’s learning challenged me to think more deeply about how behavior is learned and maintained. We explored the differences between operant conditioning and respondent conditioning, as well as rule-governed behavior and contingency-shaped behavior. While these concepts are foundational to ABA, I was surprised by how often I see them reflected in my professional and personal experiences.

One of the most valuable lessons this week was understanding that behavior is not influenced simply by what people know, but by what they experience. Rules can provide direction, but meaningful and lasting behavior change often occurs when behavior comes into contact with real consequences and seeing these concepts in my own professional endevors.

Marketing: Influencing Behavior Through Consequences

As a marketing professional, I spend much of my time trying to influence behavior. Whether the goal is encouraging someone to register for an event, download a resource, engage with content, or support a cause, marketing is fundamentally about behavior change.

Before studying ABA, I often thought of marketing primarily in terms of messaging and creativity. Now, I recognize that successful marketing campaigns rely heavily on reinforcement principles. People are more likely to engage when there is a clear benefit associated with the desired action. Early-bird discounts, loyalty programs, exclusive content, and social recognition all function as forms of reinforcement that increase the likelihood of future engagement.

This week’s learning also made me think about the difference between rule-governed and contingency-shaped behavior in marketing. We can tell people why they should take action, but behavior often changes more reliably when individuals directly experience the value of that action themselves.

Project Management: When Rules Meet Reality

My experience as a project manager provided another interesting lens through which to view this week’s concepts.

Organizations develop policies, workflows, and procedures because they expect employees and stakeholders to follow established rules. These are examples of rule-governed behavior. Team members are given instructions, expectations, and deadlines that guide their actions.

However, anyone who has managed projects knows that simply having a process does not guarantee compliance. Team members often become more consistent when they directly experience the benefits of following a process—or the challenges that arise when they do not. In many cases, behavior becomes contingency-shaped through experience.

This realization reinforced an important lesson for me: successful project management is not just about creating rules. It is about designing systems where desired behaviors naturally contact meaningful consequences.

Behavior Therapy: Watching the Science in Action

Not surprisingly, these concepts are most visible in my work as a behavior therapist.

Every day I observe how environmental variables influence behavior. Students learn communication skills because those skills are reinforced. Challenging behaviors decrease when reinforcement is redirected toward more appropriate alternatives. Functional communication training, token economies, and differential reinforcement all rely on the principles of operant conditioning.

This week’s coursework also highlighted the importance of distinguishing between behavior that is controlled by rules and behavior that is controlled by direct experience. While rules can help establish expectations, lasting behavior change often requires individuals to contact reinforcement for engaging in desired behaviors.

As a practitioner, this serves as a powerful reminder that behavior change is not achieved simply by telling someone what to do. Effective intervention requires arranging environments in which appropriate behavior is consistently reinforced.

Leadership and Community Engagement

I also found myself reflecting on my experiences leading volunteers and supporting nonprofit organizations.

Volunteer organizations frequently rely on rule-governed behavior. Volunteers are provided with expectations, training materials, and organizational values that guide their actions. Yet the volunteers who remain engaged over time are often those who experience meaningful reinforcement from their participation.

Recognition, social connection, opportunities for growth, and the satisfaction of contributing to a larger mission can all function as powerful reinforcers. Understanding these contingencies can help leaders create environments where volunteers are more likely to remain committed and engaged.

The Bigger Lesson

What stood out most this week is that behavior analysis extends far beyond clinical settings. The same principles that help a student learn to raise their hand in class can also help organizations improve performance, increase employee engagement, strengthen volunteer retention, and influence consumer behavior.

Whether I am working in marketing, project management, behavior therapy, or community leadership, I continue to encounter the same fundamental question:

What consequences are shaping behavior, and how can we design environments that promote success?

The more I study ABA, the more I realize that behavior is everywhere. Understanding the variables that influence it provides a powerful framework for creating meaningful and lasting change—not only for clients, but also for teams, organizations, and communities.

As I move closer to completing my first course and preparing for final exams in the coming weeks, I am excited to continue discovering new ways that the science of behavior can be applied across every area of life and work.

See you next week!

Stay curious!

Rose Ally

Another amazing week of learning is in the books as I continue my journey through the Graduate Certificate in Applied Behavior Analysis program at UMass Global. It’s hard to believe that I am nearing the completion of my first course out of seven, with final exams just two weeks away.

This week’s focus was on one of the most fundamental concepts in behavior analysis: the consequences of behavior and how they influence what we do, why we do it, and whether we’re likely to do it again.

The Power of Consequences

At the heart of this week’s learning was a deeper exploration of:

• Positive Reinforcement
• Negative Reinforcement
• Positive Punishment
• Negative Punishment

One of the most valuable takeaways for me was strengthening my understanding of the difference between negative reinforcement and punishment, a distinction that is often misunderstood outside of ABA.

Many people assume that negative reinforcement is a form of punishment because of the word negative. In reality, reinforcement and punishment have opposite effects on behavior. Reinforcement increases the likelihood of a behavior occurring again, while punishment decreases it. A practical example of reinforcement is receiving points or credits for reducing your electricity usage. Because the points are added following the energy-saving behavior, you are more likely to continue conserving electricity in the future. In contrast, punishment might involve receiving a speeding ticket for driving above the speed limit. The ticket serves as a consequence intended to reduce the likelihood of speeding in the future. These examples highlight the key distinction between reinforcement and punishment: reinforcement strengthens behavior, whereas punishment aims to reduce it!

For example, if a student appropriately requests a break from a difficult task and the task is temporarily removed, the behavior of requesting a break is more likely to occur in the future. That is negative reinforcement because an aversive stimulus is removed and the behavior increases. Punishment, on the other hand, results in a decrease in behavior.

Understanding this distinction has helped me appreciate how behavior analysts focus not on labels, but on the actual effect a consequence has on future behavior.

Looking Beyond Reinforcement

Automatic vs. Socially Mediated Contingencies

Some behaviors are maintained because they directly produce reinforcement on their own. These are known as automatic contingencies. Other behaviors require another person to deliver reinforcement and are considered socially mediated contingencies.

This distinction is critical because understanding the source of reinforcement helps behavior analysts identify why behaviors occur and develop effective interventions.

Unconditioned, Conditioned, and Generalized Reinforcers

I also spent time learning about the different types of reinforcers.

Unconditioned reinforcers are naturally reinforcing and do not require learning. Examples include food, water, sleep, and warmth.

Conditioned reinforcers acquire their value through experience and pairing with other reinforcers. Praise, grades, and tokens are common examples.

One concept I found particularly interesting was generalized conditioned reinforcement. Reinforcers such as money or token systems maintain their value because they are associated with many different backup reinforcers. Because of this, they are less susceptible to satiation and can be highly effective across a variety of situations.

Learning Beyond the Textbook

As always, balancing graduate studies with work, volunteer leadership responsibilities, and running Helena & Arrow requires intentional time management. This week included several projects across my professional commitments, but I was able to stay focused thanks to a few simple strategies.

One of my favorites was creating an amazing Spotify playlist to help me study, write, and stay productive during long learning sessions. Between assignments, discussion posts, and reading, music has become an important part of my learning routine.

Of course, I also made time for several walks with my favorite study companion, my dog Jada. Those walks provided much-needed opportunities to step away from the screen, clear my head, and process everything I was learning.

What’s Next?

With final exams approaching, I’m excited to continue building on this foundation. Next week’s learning will focus on:

• Positive and Negative Punishment
• Automatic and Socially Mediated Contingencies
• Unconditioned, Conditioned, and Generalized Punishers

Each week reinforces just how powerful behavior analysis can be in understanding human behavior and creating meaningful change. As I move closer to completing my first course, I continue to be fascinated by how these concepts apply not only in clinical settings but also in education, parenting, marketing, leadership, and everyday life.

Another amazing week of learning, growth, and discovery and one step closer to becoming a behavior analyst.

Stay curious,

Rose Ally