Association for Behavior Analysis International

The concept of the behavioral cusp was introduced in the late 1990’s. Since then, the concept has been widely accepted as fundamental to an understanding of behavioral development. Despite widespread use of the term within behavioral parlance, exploration of the concept and its extensions within the literature or experimental validation of the concept and its extensions have been somewhat circumscribed. There remains considerable potential to build more momentum in the development of the concept as well as expanding its versatility and overall utilization. The first presentation in this symposium will review the behavioral cusp literature. The second presentation will provide an overview of social cusps, an extension of behavioral cusps. A discussion reflecting on the concept will follow by an originator of behavioral cusp concept. This symposium is meant to lead into a separately scheduled panel discussion following the symposium, with panelists further discussing the past, present, and future of behavioral cusps.

Prerequisites include familiarity with behavior analytic terminology and concepts as well as single-case research design methodology.

Rosales-Ruiz and Baer (1996) introduced the concept of the “behavioral cusp,” or a “an interaction, or complex of interactions, that enables access to new reinforcers, new contingencies, and new communities of reinforcement and contingencies - and thus to new behaviors” (p. 165), extending the reach of behavior analysis into the developmental domain. Since the pioneering chapter and subsequent article were published (Rosales-Ruiz & Baer, 1997), several formative works have explored the behavioral cusp concept, expanding its application to novel domains as well as extending the concept itself. To date, no systematic reviews have been conducted examining the use of the cusp in the literature. Thus, the purpose of this presentation is to (a) broadly examine the ways in which the term has been used in the literature via systematic review, (b) identify and offer interpretations of trends in term use, and (c) discuss possible future uses that could benefit the field.