ABA Guided Notes: Reinforcement, Schedules, and Punishment

Flashcards defining core concepts, principles, and procedures of positive and negative reinforcement, basic and compound schedules, and positive and negative punishment from ABA guided lecture notes.

Positive Reinforcement

Occurs when a response is followed immediately by the presentation of a stimulus change that increases the future occurrence of similar responses.

Positive Reinforcer

The stimulus presented following a response that functions to increase the frequency of that response.

Discriminative Stimulus ($S^D$)

An antecedent stimulus correlated with the availability of reinforcement, in whose presence a given response is more likely to be reinforced than in its absence.

Discriminated Operant

An operant behavior that occurs more frequently under some antecedent stimulus conditions than under others, exemplified by the three-term contingency of $S^D$, response, and reinforcer.

Establishing Operation (EO)

A motivating operation that increases the current effectiveness of a reinforcer, usually involving a state of deprivation or decreased access to that reinforcer.

Abolishing Operation (AO)

A motivating operation that decreases the current effectiveness of a reinforcer, usually involving satiation or increased access to that reinforcer.

Automatic Reinforcement

A behavior-stimulus change relation that occurs without the presentation of consequences by other people, where the response itself produces the reinforcing consequence directly.

Unconditioned Reinforcer

A stimulus change that functions as a reinforcer due to heredity and evolution without requiring any prior learning history; also called a primary or unlearned reinforcer.

Conditioned Reinforcer

A previously neutral stimulus change that acquires reinforcing capability through stimulus-stimulus pairing with one or more unconditioned or conditioned reinforcers.

Generalized Conditioned Reinforcer

A conditioned reinforcer that has been paired with many unconditioned and conditioned reinforcers and does not depend on a current establishing operation for its effectiveness.

Premack Principle

Informally called "Grandma's Law," this principle states that making the opportunity to engage in a high-probability behavior contingent on the occurrence of a low-probability behavior will act as reinforcement for the low-probability behavior.

Stimulus Preference Assessment

A variety of procedures used to identify stimuli that a person differentially selects, establish their hierarchical preference value, and determine conditions under which those values change.

Reinforcer Assessment

A direct empirical test that presents potential reinforcers contingent on the occurrence of a behavior to measure their actual effects on response rate.

Free Operant Observation

A stimulus preference assessment method where an observer records the activities a person engages in during a period of unrestricted access to various items in a contrived or naturalistic setting.

Multiple Stimulus Without Replacement (MSWO)

A trial-based preference assessment method where an array of items is presented, and once an item is chosen by the learner, it is removed from the array for subsequent trials.

Negative Reinforcement

Occurs when a response is followed immediately by the termination, reduction, postponement, or removal of a stimulus, resulting in an increased future probability of that response.

Escape Contingency

A contingency in which a response terminates an ongoing, typically aversive stimulus, thereby strengthening that response.

Avoidance Contingency

A contingency in which a response prevents or postpones the presentation of an aversive stimulus, thereby increasing the frequency of the behavior.

Free-Operant Avoidance

Avoidance behavior that can occur at any time without a warning signal and delays the presentation of an aversive stimulus.

Discriminated Avoidance

Avoidance behavior that is explicitly signaled by an antecedent stimulus, indicating that responding will prevent the onset of an aversive consequence.

Continuous Reinforcement (CRF)

A schedule of reinforcement that provides reinforcement for every occurrence of the target behavior, used primarily when shaping or establishing a new behavior.

Intermittent Schedule of Reinforcement

A schedule in which only some occurrences of the behavior are reinforced, which serves to maintain established behaviors and make them more resistant to extinction.

Fixed Ratio (FR) Schedule

A schedule requiring a constant, fixed number of responses before a response produces reinforcement, typically generating high rates of responding with a post-reinforcement pause.

Post-Reinforcement Pause

A pause in responding that typically occurs immediately after reinforcement is delivered in fixed ratio and fixed interval schedules.

Variable Ratio (VR) Schedule

A schedule requiring an average number of responses before reinforcement is delivered, producing consistent, steady response rates without post-reinforcement pauses.

Fixed Interval (FI) Schedule

A schedule providing reinforcement for the first response emitted after a fixed duration of time has elapsed, producing a scallop pattern with slow rates early and accelerated rates toward the end.

Variable Interval (VI) Schedule

A schedule providing reinforcement for the first correct response after a variable duration of time has elapsed, producing constant, stable, low to moderate response rates.

Ratio Strain

A behavioral breakdown or emergence of problem behavior resulting from abrupt or overly large increases in response ratio requirements.

Progressive-Ratio Schedule

A schedule that systematically increases the response requirements within a session until the learner reaches a breaking point and ceases responding.

Matching Law

A behavioral principle addressing response allocation in concurrent schedules, stating that the relative rate of responding is typically proportional to the relative rate of reinforcement obtained from each alternative.

Concurrent Schedules

Two or more reinforcement schedules that operate independently and simultaneously for two or more behaviors, allowing the learner to choose how to allocate responses.

Multiple Schedule

A compound schedule consisting of two or more basic schedules alternating randomly, operating independently and successively, each signaled by its own discriminative stimulus ($S^D$).

Chained Schedule

A compound schedule where two or more schedules occur in a specific sequence with the same behavior, and completion of one schedule produces an $S^D$ signaling the next schedule.

Mixed Schedule

A nondiscriminated compound schedule where two or more basic schedules alternate randomly and operate successively without any discriminative stimulus associated with the components.

Tandem Schedule

A nondiscriminated compound schedule operating in a specific sequence without discriminative stimuli for each component schedule.

Token Economy

A reinforcement system consisting of a specified list of target behaviors, generalized conditioned tokens or points earned for emitting those behaviors, and a menu of backup reinforcers.

Independent Group Contingency

A group contingency presented to all members of a group, but reinforcement is delivered only to those individual members who independently meet the criterion.

Dependent Group Contingency

A group contingency where reinforcement for the entire group depends on the target performance of a specific individual or small selected group.

Interdependent Group Contingency

A group contingency where all members of the group must meet the predetermined performance criterion before any member receives reinforcement.

Punishment

Occurs when a response is followed immediately by a stimulus change that decreases the future frequency of similar responses under similar conditions.

Positive Punishment

Occurs when the presentation of a stimulus (or an increase in the intensity of an already present stimulus) immediately following a behavior results in a decrease in the future frequency of that behavior.

Discriminative Stimulus for Punishment ($S^{Dp}$)

An antecedent stimulus correlated with a history of punishment, in whose presence responding is less likely to occur because it signals that punishment is available.

Behavioral Contrast

A change in response rate on an unaltered component schedule in the opposite direction of a change in response rate produced by an altered schedule of reinforcement or punishment on another component.

Response Blocking

A positive punishment intervention where the practitioner physically intervenes as the target behavior begins in order to prevent its completion.

Response Interruption and Redirection (RIRD)

A procedure where an interventionist interrupts an interfering behavior as it begins using physical or verbal blocking and prompts the learner to engage in high-probability or appropriate motor or vocal behaviors.

Restitutional Overcorrection

A contingent intervention requiring the learner to repair the environmental damage caused by the target behavior and restore the setting to a state substantially better than it was before the behavior occurred.

Positive Practice Overcorrection

An overcorrection procedure requiring the learner to repeatedly perform an appropriate or correct form of the target behavior, or an incompatible behavior, for a set number of repetitions or duration.

Negative Punishment

Occurs when a response is followed immediately by the removal or termination of an already present stimulus, resulting in a decrease in the future occurrence of similar responses.

Time-Out from Positive Reinforcement

The immediate withdrawal of the opportunity to earn positive reinforcement or the loss of access to positive reinforcers for a specified amount of time contingent upon the occurrence of a target behavior.

Non-Exclusion Time-Out

A time-out procedure where the learner remains physically within the time-in environment, but elements of the setting are changed to terminate reinforcers or eliminate the opportunity to earn them.

Exclusion Time-Out

A time-out procedure involving the physical removal and separation of the participant from the time-in environment when the target behavior occurs.

Release Contingency

An exit criterion for time-out requiring the complete absence of misbehavior for a predetermined duration before the time-out period can terminate.

Response Cost

A negative punishment procedure involving the contingent loss of a specific amount of previously earned or available reinforcement following the emission of a problem behavior.

Bonus Response Cost

A response cost variation in which additional reinforcers are provided noncontingently specifically to be removed if target problem behaviors occur.