Association for Behavior Analysis International

Behavior skills training (BST) provides an effective technology for teaching novel skills. Previous studies of interventions that utilize BST to train parents, clinicians, and persons with disabilities have shown that BST facilitates skill acquisition for social skills, often referred to as “soft skills”, that are necessary for many applications in the workplace as well as in therapeutic contexts. Despite the recent increase of online education providers, there are relatively few courses that incorporate BST. Online courses often consist of slide-based technologies and video lectures that do not necessarily engage learners’ attention or interaction, with intermittent quizzes as the only interaction points. Currently, more advanced technology is available to incorporate BST into online courses in compelling ways. Virtual Reality (VR) provides a medium for experiential learning in which the learner interacts with the virtual environment, as an analogue to “real life” situations, to produce certain consequences. Each node of interaction in VR provides an opportunity for rehearsal, as the learner practices soft skills and receives immediate feedback. The current study examines the use of VR for BST and explores the potential costs and benefits of VR for various “soft skills” training applications for different populations.