Self-Reflection on New Behavior Acquisition

Think of a time that you had to establish a new behavior in your adult life. Keep an open mind when identifying your example—you could discuss learning a new musical instrument, an updated computer program, a specific writing strategy for a course (e.g., APA formatting), changing how you interact with a person, interacting with a new or changed group of people, or any other learned behavior. As you reflect, answer the following questions:

• What was helpful to you in your learning?
• Who or what supported you in developing the new skill? This could be another person, an experience, a video tutorial, an instructional manual, etc.
• Identify at least one technique or strategy discussed in Miltenberger (2016) Chapter(s) 9, 10, and/or 11 (shaping, fading, prompting, or chaining) that was or would have been helpful in your learning process. Provide detail about how and why the technique or strategy was or would have been helpful.
• What is one example of stimulus control in the context of your acquisition of this new skill?

Think outside the box here, as we learn many new behaviors in our adult lives. Be sure to cite Miltenberger (2016) in APA format as support for your response.