PSYCH 210 EXAM #4

CHAPTER 14: Assesment and Treatment of Challenging Behavior

Explain how problem behavior is culturally defined

Be able to identify “problem behaviors” and know what behavior analysts usually mean when they talk about problem behavior

Understand and be able to describe the three methods of determining the function (cause) of problem behavior

Know the antecedent manipulation, consequence for problem behavior, and likely reinforcer for each of the “standard” functional analysis conditions

Be able to interpret (determine the function of a behavior) a functional analysis outcome graph

Be able to explain what automatic reinforcement is, what condition tests for it, and what functional analysis graph patterns would indicate automatic reinforcement

Understand the criticism of a functional analysis, and be able to explain the allergist analogy as a response

Be able to identify the two goals of treatment

Understand the role of baseline and what a reversal (or withdrawl) design is

Be able to define/describe the “types” of differential reinforcement and how they might be applied to the treatment of problem behavior

Be able to define/describe NCR. Why does it work? Why doesnt it work? Why is it less preferred than DR?

CH 15: Respondent Conditioning

S-R Relationships

in the early days of behavioral psychology researchers attempted to force all behavior into the S-R relationship

• skinner and others suggested that was NOT sufficient, and thus born the operant class conception

Synonyms for respondent conditioning

Respondent Conditioning

Pavlovian Conditioning

Classical Conditioning

Understand how the concept of stimulus control relates to respondent conditioning

Respondent conditioning is an instance of stimulus control applied to stimulus presentation, NOT consequential operations

Translation: we only manipulate the environment before behavior. We measure behavior after our manipulation, it there are no consequences for behavior

be able to descrube the essential features of Pavlovs experiments (using food and aversive stimulation)

neutral stimulus (NS)

a stimulus has that no eliciting effect (beverage, money)

unconditional stimulus (US)

a stimulus that elicits a reflex (response) without any prior history

(stimulus that the baby WILL react to: hot, cold, bright, or even a pacifier)

conditional stimulus (CS)

a previously neutral stimulus that now elicits a response due to its pairing with a unconditonal stimulus

conditional response (CR)

the response that is learned. It occurs following following the presentation of the conditional stimulus

unconditional response (UR)

the response that occurs, reflexivity, following the presentation of the unconditional stimulus

respondent conditioning

the process whereby a neutral stimulus (NS) acquires characteristics of an unconditonal stimulus (US)

delay conditioning

The CS is presented for a period of time before the US, and may overlap with the US.

More effective when there’s an overlap

What does US tell the organism about its existence? Tells about the future/present

simultaneous conditioning

The onset of the CS preceeding that of US by no more than 5 seconds

Some have suggested that if the CS doesn't tell you anything (any information about what’s coming up), conditioning will NOT occur. But it DOES!

• The fact that the CS tells you about what is coming probably makes conditioning more likely, but it’s not required

What does the US tell the organism about its existence? Their present

trace conditioning

The CS is presented for a brief period of time (it turns on and then off), and some time later, the US is presented

The effectiveness of this procedure will vary depending on the time between the CS and the US.

Trace and Delay conditioning are distinguished by whether the CS turns OFF (Trace) or remains PRESENT (Delay)

backward conditioning

The US is presented and consumed before the CS is presented

be able to describe the essential features of John B. Watsons experiment

Little Albert gets presented with various stimuli

• Fire- reaches to touch

• Monkey on a leash- Not scared and looking at the monkey

• Dog- Not scared, tries to grab and touch it

• Rat- not scared

• Rabbit- not scared

Research will play a loud noise stimulus in the presence of animals

• Rat- Albert tried to touch, the sound went off, Albert began to cry

• Rabbit- He cries

• When showing Albert the rest of the animals, he would cry because of the possibility of being startled by the loud stimulus

What’s the NS? The animals and the fire

How did the conditioning occur? the loud noise paired w/ reaching for the animals

Be able to describe the essential features of the respondent conditioning illustrations (videos) from a popular television program and an eager college student

The Office: Jim doing the Pavlov experiment on Dwight

Anytime Jims computer makes a sound, he would offer dwight candy, dwight would take it

• He continued to do this for awhile

• Jim computer makes a sound and Dwights hand immediately goes towards Jim to receive the mint, but Jim looks confused like he doesnt know why hes doing it

The NS- the computer sound

Conditioning occured by- pairing the computer sound with the reward of the candy

During the EXT trial- Dwight reached hand out for mint

College st

be able to describe why the conidtional stimulus is not a discriminative stimulus

It does tell you it will happen BUT doesn’t give you a particular way to behave that will reinforced

It is an antecedent because it simply describes the temporal order of things (it comes “before” or “first”)

• but it does signal that a certain type of behavior will be reinforced

Understand how respondent conditioning plays a role in shaping human emotion

When we remember important, meaningful events that happen in our lives, we tend to recall things that co-occurred with those events (ie, we’re paired with those events)

This is applied to both tragedy and moments of sheer joy and happiness

Flashbulb memories- vivid memories created and retained

Historical- 9/11, WW1/2

Autobiographical-

• when stimuli that were present during that initial pairing “reappear” these stimuli have to capacity to “elicit” responses that you experienced at the initial pairing

CHAPTER 16: Respondent Conditioning II

Dr. No Shot relates to respondent conditioning

stimuli that accompany aversive stimulation can become aversive. Stimuli that accompany positive reinforcement can become reinforcing

acquisition

initial learning of the coniditonal response. Speed of acquisition is measured by the number of trials until the CS elicits a CR without the US.

habituation

When a US repreatedly elicits a UR and the response gradually declines in magnitude

respondent extinction

Repeated presentation of the CS without the US

• The CS will eventually lose its effects (CR)

spontaneous recovery

overshadowing

blocking

compensatory responses

tolerance

understand how acquisition can be facilitated by the magnititude of the US

If we pair 3 lights, of different color, with a different magnititude of the US, will the CR differ, in mangitiude

Slow US gives small mangitiude

Fast US gives larger magnititude

be able to describe the “medical treatment” example and the “alcohol” example in terms of taxonomy of respondent conditioning

be able to describe how respondent extinction would be conducted given an example, and distinguish between extinction as operation and process

be able to describe the operation of process of conditioned suppression, and be able to calculate the suppression ratio

be able to describe the process of seconf order conditioning, and the examples used to illustrate how this might occur

be able to describe how drug use and abuse can be described in terms of respondent conditioning

The CONTEXT in which individuals consume drugs may have a huge impact on the effects of the drug. With repeated pairings of drug (US), and injection (CS), the CR becomes smaller and acts in a direction that is the opposite of the drug

Substantial tolerance develops to the effects of opiates— the experienced user can survive a dose many times greater than that which would kill a novice user

• yet a small percentage of experienced users die each year from overdose

• Some fatalities are a result of true overdose. Other times, experienced use sees die from a dose that should NOT have killed them

be able to describe the findings from Reyes et al and Siegel et al.

Reyes et al.

• To measure arousal, subjects are asked to wear a penile plethysmograph

• After positioning the penile plethysmograph, subjects were seated in a chair, and various non sexual, non-nude stimuli were presented for 30-90 seconds at a time.

Males and Females (non-nude, of varying races)

4-5 years olds, 6-7, 8-9, Late Teens, Adult

Neutral Stimuli (boat, flag)

• This assessment occurred prior to any “intervention.”

• The interventions focus on respondent conditioning, and many are no longer permissible by law

• Results of this assessment suggest that this subject is NOT ready for release from detention

Siegel et al.

• Three groups of rats were studied. Two of the groups received heroin every other day for 30 days

• On non-drug days, rats received sugar-water injections—why is this important? To establish the feeling of being injected