Stimulus Generalization
Occurs when stimuli that share similar physical characteristics with the controlling stimulus evoke the same behavior as the controlling stimulus. For example, a child calling all dogs Bella because the child’s dog is named Bella or a baby calling both Mom and Dad dada.
The behavior that occurs in the presence of one stimulus also occurs in the presence of another stimulus. For example,
teaching a learner to say apple when they see a picture of an apple, then the
learner says apple when they see a real apple. A learner learns to identify
their sibling’s emotions and then begins to identify friend’s emotions