behavior analysis exam #4

what behavioral consequence involves the addition of a stimulus, resulting in the increase of a behavior?

positive reinforcement

what behavioral consequence involves the addition of a stimulus, resulting in the decrease of a behavior?

positive punishment

what behavioral consequence involves the removal of a stimulus, resulting in the increase of a behavior?

negative reinforcement

what behavioral consequence involves the removal of a stimulus, resulting in the decrease of a behavior?

negative punishment

what are the five components of a behavioral contract?

1. identifying the target behavior(s)

2. stating how the target behavior(s) will be measured

3. stating when the behavior(s) must be performed

4. identifying the reinforcement or punishment contingency for the behavior(s)

5. identifying who will implement the contingency (who will be the contract manager)

in what ways can a target behavior be measured in a behavioral contract?

the target behavior needs to be observable and measurable through frequency, duration, latency, intensity, accuracy (quality of response), percentage (proportion of responses), or through interval based measures (ex., answering 4 out of 5 intervals recorded)

what type of antecedent manipulation is a behavioral contract?

rule-based antecedent intervention (a type of antecedent intervention that makes use of the influences of rule-governed behavior)

what are the three components to a simplified habit reversal procedure, and what does each component do/accomplish?

awareness training: identifying antecedents for the habit behavior

• makes habit more noticeable/detectable

competing response training: being able to “urge surf,” find other behaviors to redirect or temporarily replace the habit behavior

• intervenes/breaks habit, works towards reducing the habit behavior from occurring… gives you something else to do

social support: prompting or praise for engaging in the competing response

• reinforcing alternative behaviors, makes habit behavior less and less likely and alternative behaviors more likely

what are habit behaviors?

often body-focused repetitive behaviors that function through automatic reinforcement (ex., thumb sucking, nail biting, hair pulling, etc)

what functions can the competing response serve as?

the competing response can serve as a replacement behavior (giving you something else to do),

what does it mean to say that an aversive stimulus is defined functionally? (hint: future rates of behavior)

an aversive behavior isn’t just “unpleasant,” it influences behavior:

• decreases the frequency of problem behavior in the future

• stimuli that tends to be avoided/elicits escape behavior

how are the application of aversive activities used to reduce problem behavior?

based on the Premack Principle: when the requirement to engage in a low-probability behavior (aversive activity) is made to be contingent on the occurrence of a high probability behavior (problem behavior), the high-probability behavior will decrease in the future

problem behavior → aversive activity → less likely to engage in problem behavior in the future

what is the difference between positive practice overcorrection, restitutional overcorrection, contingent exercises, guided compliance, and physical restraint?

positive practice overcorrection: the client has to engage in correct forms of some kind of aversive activity contingent on each occurrence of the problem behavior for a minimum frequency, interval of time, etc (spelling example)

restitutional overcorrection: following each instance of the problem behavior, the client has to correct the environmental effects of the problem behavior/make the environment better than it was before (coloring walls with crayons example)

contingent exercises: problem behavior → client has to do some kind of physical exercise → decrease in future probability of engaging in problem behavior

guided compliance: a client being physically guided (tends to be aversive) through an activity as a result of non-compliance, the physical guidance serving as a punisher for non-compliance

physical restraint: involves response blocking (problem behavior is prevented by physically blocking the response/making sure the client can’t engage in the response)

“time-out” is an example of what kind of punishment?

negative punishment (the removal of or being removed from a positively reinforcing environment, decreasing the probability of future occurrences of the behavior)

what is non-exclusionary time-out vs. exclusionary timeout? when might one be more appropriate/effective to use than the other?

non-exclusionary: not completely removed from reinforcing environment, but still removed from reinforcing activity

exclusionary: being completely removed from reinforcing environment to a separate environment where no reinforcers are available

one might be better than the other depending on how reinforcing the environment is, whether or not it is safe for the individual or others for them to remain in the environment, whether or not the behavior is severe/disruptive/etc…

what is essential for time-out to be effective? when might it be innapropriate?

time-out should be used alongside differential reinforcement (DRA) in an effort to increase alternative behaviors to replace the problem behavior(s) - OR, provide reinforcement for the absence of the problem behavior (DRO)

time-out would not be effective/appropriate if a problem behavior is maintained by negative reinforcement or sensory stimulation (automatic reinforcement)

what is response cost and what kind of punishment is it?

response cost is a negative punishment procedure that involves the removal of a specified amount of a reinforcer (money is a good example… ex., getting a parking ticket) contingent on the occurrence of a problem behavior (parking ticket → less likely to park in certain places in the future)

what is necessary for response cost to be used effectively?

• the contingency/cost needs to be clear/explicit

• there has to be something meaningful/reinforcing to lose

• the cost needs to be reasonable/proportionate to the problem behavior (too small → not impactful, too big → frustrating, results in avoidance)

• DRA (reinforcing alternative/appropriate behaviors to replace the problem behavior)

• succeeding needs to be possible

• monitoring and adjusting response cost to maintain its effectiveness

what is the difference between extinction and negative punishment?

both extinction and negative punishment involve weakening a problem behavior, however, extinction is a process that withholds the reinforcer that maintains the behavior, and negative punishment removes a positive reinforcer following the occurrence of the behavior

what are the behavioral side-effects/potential drawbacks/issues with utilizing punishment?

• can sometimes elicit modeling (ex., child starts hitting others if a parent hits them as a punishment)

• may produce emotional effects (most commonly aggression)

• may result in escape/avoidance behaviors

• can be negatively reinforcing for the person implementing punishment procedures, possibly resulting in the over/misuse of punishment

• can be unethical

what does it mean to say that punishment is a default technology?

it can often be easy to implement/be a fall-back because it’s reactive. it isn’t usually the best choice (nor should it ever be the first choice in behavioral interventions), but it’s easy to resort to because it more often than not produces immediate effects.

what factors influence the effectiveness of punishment?

1. immediacy (the longer the delay between behavior and consequence = less effective consequence)

2. contingency (punishment is more effective when the punishing stimulus/loss of reinforcer occurs every time the behavior occurs)

3. motivating operations (AO/EO)… deprivation, excess, etc

4. individual differences/magnitude of punisher (a stimulus may not function as a punisher for every person, may be more or less punishing depending on its magnitude/intensity)

what are the two main punishment procedures, and what are its three basic components?

punishment can be positive or negative.

it’s three main components are immediacy, contingency, and intensity/magnitude