Lecture 10: Punishment, Escape, and Avoidance Conditioning

Decreasing Behaviour With Punishment

• Define punishment and punisher.

• Distinguish between four different types of punishers.

• Describe factors influencing the effectiveness of punishment.

• Discuss potentially harmful side effects of the application of punishment.

• Evaluate the ethics of using punishment as opposed to other methods for decreasing unwanted behavior.

Punisher

• Event that when presented immediately after a behaviour, causes that behaviour to decrease in frequency

• Synonyms

  • Aversive stimuli

  • Aversives

Principle of Punishment

If in a certain situation a person engages in a behaviour that is followed immediately by a punisher, then the person is less likely to do the same thing again in a similar situation.

Behaviour modification view

• Punishment is a technical term; application of immediate consequence(s) to decrease behaviour

• C occurs immediately after B

• Not a moral sanction, vengeance, or retribution

• Is not used to deter others from behaviour

Layperson view

• Punishment should involve retribution

• Should be used as a deterrent for potential wrong-doers

4 types of punishers

1. Pain inducing

2. Reprimands

3. Time outs

4. Response Cost

Pain inducing punishers (PP)

• Physical punishers

• Activate pain receptors

• Unconditioned punishers

Reprimands (PP)

• Verbal reprimands

• Fixed stare

• Firm grasp

• Conditioned punishers

Time outs (NP)

• Moving a person to a less reinforcing environment or situation

• Exclusionary time-out

  • Removing person for a short time from situation

• Non-exclusionary time-out

  • Using a stimulus associated with less reinforcement

Exclusionary time out

Removing person for a short time from situation

Non-exclusionary time out

Using a stimulus associated with less reinforcement

Response cost (NP)

• Removal of specified amount of reinforcer

• May involve indirect effects (delayed punishment)

Should Punishment be used?

• Can have harmful effects:

  1. Elicits aggressive behaviour

  2. Can produce undesirable emotional side effects (i.e., crying, fearfulness)

  3. Escape and avoidance behaviour

  • Can cause the situation and people associated with the aversive stimulus to become conditioned punishers 4. No new behaviour is taught

  5. Modeling of punishment

  • Children may learn to apply aversive stimuli on others

  6. Continued use of punishment

  • Punishment results in quick suppression of undesirable behaviour

  • This can lead to overuse and not enough use of reinforcement of desirable behaviour

Side effects of Punishment

• While punishment can discourage and decrease unwanted behaviours, punishment is the quickest and most effective way of developing fear of failure (Petri & Govern, 2004)

• Fear of failure has been shown to decrease performance in competition and overall enjoyment of sport, while increasing the risk for injury and the likelihood of drop out (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002)

• Higher levels of fear of failure have also been associated with less academic achievement and with increased use of several maladaptive strategies such as self-handicapping behaviour and school disengagement (Au et al., 2009; Martin, 2012)

Behaviour Modifiers and Punishment Programs

• Recommendation: use punishment as a last resort because:

  • Easy to abuse

  • Application can have harmful side effects

• Consider designing punishment programs only when:

  • Clear steps are taken to maximize the conditions for a desirable alternative response and to minimize the causes of the response to be punished

  • It is in the person’s best interest to bring about rapid behaviour change

  • The intervention meets ethical standards

  • Punishment is applied according to clear guidelines

Guidelines for Effective Application of Punishment

• Select a response –

  • Punishment is more effective with a specific behaviour

• Maximize the conditions for a desirable alternative response

  • Select alternative behaviour

  • Provide strong prompts

  • Reinforce

• Minimize the causes of the response to be punished

• Select an effective punisher

• Present clear SDs

• Deliver the punisher

  • Present immediately after every instance of response to be decreased

  • Administer in a calm, matter-of-fact manner

  • Do not pair with reinforcement

• Take data

Increasing the Effectiveness of Punishment

• Increase stimuli for positive, alternative behaviours

• Minimize the cause of undesirable behaviours

• Select an appropriate punisher

  • the more intense the better; however, intensity that is needed is dependent upon causes of undesirable behaviour

• Adding an antecedent to punishment SDp stimulus in the presence of which a response will be punished

• Delivering the Punisher

  • Most effective when delivered immediately after the behaviour

  • Occasional punishment is less effective than punishment that follows every instance of the undesirable behaviour.

  • Delivery of punishment should not be paired with positive reinforcement – this weakens the punisher

Establishing Behaviour by Escape and Avoidance Conditioning

• Define escape conditioning and avoidance conditioning.

• Compare and contrast escape conditioning, avoidance conditioning, punishment, and positive reinforcement in terms of the antecedents and consequences involved in each.

• Identify and produce examples of escape and avoidance conditioning in everyday life.

Escape Conditioning

• Removal of aversive stimuli after response, increases likelihood of response

• Negative reinforcement

• Aversive stimulus must be present for desired response to occur

Avoidance Conditioning

• Behaviour will increase in frequency if it prevents an aversive stimulus from occurring.

  • Behaviour occurs before aversive stimulus appears

  • Behaviour increases because it prevents discomfort

  • No direct exposure to the aversive stimulus

Discriminated Avoidance Conditioning

• Involves a warning signal of a forthcoming aversive stimulus

  • Synonyms: conditioned aversive stimulus, conditioned punisher

• A conditioned aversive stimulus is also a conditioned punisher; that is, it will suppress the occurrence of any response that it follows.

Guidelines for the Effective Application of Avoidance Procedures

• Avoidance procedure preferable over escape procedure.

• Target behaviour should be established by escape conditioning before it is put on an avoidance procedure.

• Use warning signal to signal impending aversive stimulus during avoidance conditioning.

• Use positive reinforcement in conjunction with escape and avoidance conditioning.

• Individuals should be told about the contingencies.

Pitfalls of Escape and Avoidance Conditioning

• Undesirable behaviour may be strengthened

• Inadvertent establishment of conditioned aversive stimuli

  • Individual responds by avoiding or escaping them

• Maintains undesirable behaviours of the teacher or other caregivers