Chapter 6: Increasing a Behaviour with Positive Reinforcement

Increasing a Behaviour with Positive Reinforcement

Positive Reinforcement

• consequence (follows a behaviour and occurs contingent upon a behaviour) that increases the future likelihood that a person will do that behaviour in that context

3 Reasons Reinforcer is not synonymous with Reward

1. Reinforcement is a more general concept (rewards may be reinforcers, but not all reinforcers are rewards)

   • turn a door handle, as a consequence the door opens; door opening is a reinforcement, not a reward

   • when a rat presses a lever, it experiences fewer shocks than when it does not press the lever (avoidance)

2. Reinforcer is defined solely by its effect on behaviour, a reward is not

   • definition of reward: a thing of value given in recognition of one’s service, effort, or achievement

3. Reinforcement refers to a relationship between a behaviour and a consequence rather than a property/characteristic of a stimulus (no such thing as a “reinforcer”)

   • reward refers to a property of a stimulus

     • $100 strengthens the behaviour that produces it (“reinforcer”), but weakens the behaviour that loses it (“punisher”)

     • how can $100 be both a “reinforcer” and a “punisher”? Need to refer to its relation to behaviour and how it affects that behaviour

   • conscious awareness is not required

   • effect occurs in everyday life (every time we do something, no matter what it is, there are consequences that “turn us on” or “turn us off” or don’t affect us one way or the other)

Operant

• terminology for a behaviour

  • source: individual operatures on the environment to generate consequences that in turn affect her/his/their behaviour

  • origin: law of effect

Positive vs. Negative

• reinforcement: a consequence that increases the future likelihood of the behaviour

• consequence can

  • involve the presentation (positive) of something (praise, food, money) — often pleasant or desired, but not necessary

  • involve the removal (negative) of something (complaining, crying) — often experienced as aversive or undesirable, but not necessarily

• never confuse punishment with negative reinforcement

8 Factors Influencing Effectiveness of Reinforcement

1. Clearly define/identify a specific behaviour (e.g., smiling)

   • reliably detect occurrence and track changes in frequency (accurate measurement)

   • reinforcers will be more consistently applied

2. Choose an effective reinforcer

   • reinforcer must be tailored to the individual (reinforcer for one is not a reinforcer for all, food is quite general)

   • presentation (e.g., praise) or removal of something (e.g., complaining) can function as reinforcer

Types of Reinforcers

• consumable (can eat or drink)

• activity (opportunity to engage in an activity)

• manipulative (opportunity to play with a toy, colour with crayons, or paint with a brush)

  • involves manipulation of an object

• posessional (opportunity to enjoy an item one can possess)

  • sit in favorite chair, wear favorite shirt

• social (hugs, praise, nods, smiles from others)

How to Select a Reinforcer

• complete reinforcer survey

  • questions about different reinforcer types

• observe everyday activity to record how often/long people like to do different things

  • Premack Principle: opportunity to engage in a high probability behaviour will function as reinforcement for a low probability behaviour

• allow individual to choose from a selection of reinforcements (better than using a single reinforcement)

Law of Effect

• if the behaviour does not increase in frequency of occurrence, then the consequence is not a reinforcement

  • if the behaviour does increase in frequency of occurrence, then it is a reinforcement (differentiates reward from reinforcement)

Motivating Operations

• procedure that temporarily alters the effectiveness of a reinforcer

  • deprivation

  • satiation

Deprivation

• time without access to a reinforcer increases reinforcer effectiveness (longer it has been since your last meal, the more effective food will be as a reinforcer)

Satiation

• recent access to a reinforcer diminishes reinforcer effectiveness (e.g., food reinforcer is less effective when just ate a large meal)

Reinforcer Size

• in general, larger reinforcers are more effective than smaller reinforcers ($5 vs. $1)

  • exception: P.I.E (Paradoxical Incentive Effect)

• satiation is a consideration particularly with consumable reinforcers (larger food reinforcers = fewer learning trials per session before satiate)

Use Rules (human advantage)

• rule makes it clear when and under what conditions a reinforcer will occur contingent upon a behaviour

• speeds up learning process (stimulus control)

  • behaviour changes quicker when instructions are used and can be understood

Immediacy

• deliver a reinforcer as soon as possible after the behaviour has occurred, effectiveness of a reinforcer diminishes with delay

• humans have longer temporal horizons than animals, for rats and pigeons when a reinforcer is delayed just a few seconds out into the future, it loses almost all of it’s effectiveness in the present, not with humans

Why are our Temporal Horizons Longer?

• events (e.g., conditioned reinforcers) bridge the delay between a response and a long-delayed reinforcer

• indirect acting effects

  • self-statements can strengthen effect of a reinforcer that is delayed

Contingent Reinforcers

• reinforcer only occurs if the behaviour occurs, not if it doesn’t (depends on the behaviour)

  • reinforcers must be contingent upon a behaviour for that behaviour to increase

Non-Contingent

• reinforcer occurs independently of any particular behaviour

  • strengthens the behaviour that it follows

    • problem: may strengthen undesirable behaviour

Adventitious Reinforcement

• strengthens behaviour that it follows

  • basis for development of superstitious behaviour

Superstitious Behaviour

• our brains are hardwired to make associations, detect correlations, infer cause and effect

Matute (1994, 1995) Study

• students exposed to unpleasantly loud tones

  • told tones could be turned off by typing the correct sequence of keys on a keyboard

    • no sequence of key strokes terminated the tones

• tones went on then off after a few seconds independently of the typing of the students

  • if a student was typing when a tone came on and then terminated, student was likely to repeat the sequence of keystrokes that she/he made just before the tone terminated when the next tone occurred

• Most of the students developed stereotypic sequences of keystrokes that they believed turned off the tones

Transitioning from Programmed to Natural Reinforcers

• natural reinforcers are reinforcers that follow behaviour in everyday life in everyday settings, not deliberately programmmed to occur

• once a behaviour is established and maintained using programmed reinforcers in a particular setting, goal is to transfer control of behaviour to the natural environment

• take this goal into consideration when choosing reinforcers and settings in which programmed reinforcement occurs (choice may facilitate generalization to classroom/home environment)

Why is a reinforcer reinforcing — Theories

• drive reduction

• premack principle

Drive Reduction

• biological needs (hunger, thirst) when not met, produce unpleasant internal state of stimulation

  • any stimulus that reduces that unpleasant stimulation functions as a reinforcer (food, water) for the behaviour that produces it

Problem with Drive Reduction

• reinforcers that increase rather than reduce sensory stimulation (music, roller coaster)

Premack Principle

• reinforcement involves making a high probability behaviour contingent on a low probability behaviour (not lever pressing to produce food, but lever pressing to produce eating)

• make the opportunity to play video games contingent upon completion of homework/daily chore

• grandma’s rule: in order to get a dessert to eat, you have to eat all of your vegetables

Pitfalls

• unknowingly strengthen undesirable behaviour by attending to it (social reinforcement)

• assume that presenting reinforcers non-contingently will strengthen behaviour (providing fun activity not contingent upon performance does not produce any change in performance)

• assume that positive reinforcement is the explanation for a behaviour without investigating the operating contingencies of reinforcement

• use labels as explanations for behaviour or lack of behaviour

• behavioural procedures not applied because they are assumed too complex and/or require specialized training/knowledge

Social Reinforcement

• example: socially withdrawn child receives more attention when being withdrawn than when interacting with other children

• never make the mistake of not attending to children when they are behaving well/appropriately, and only attending to children when they are not behaving well (assume that children are naturally good)

Assume that positive reinforcement is the explanation for a behaviour without investigating the operating contingencies of reinforcement

• good grade may not be the reinforcer maintaining studying behaviour (delayed); more immediate consequence of alleviating anxiety about failing may be more important consequence

Use labels as explanations for behaviour or lack of behaviour

• ex; teenager that does not clean up after self, spends lots of time watching TV or on Facebook — parent explains as “lazy”; however may be the reinforcement for appropriate behaviours from parent is low relative to that received from other activities

Behavioural procedures not applied because they are assumed too complex and/or require specialized training/knowledge

• parent unfamiliar with reinforcement fails to reinforce the rare occurrence of an appropriate behaviour in a normally inconsiderate child

Pitfalls with Edible Reinforcers

• ethical/legal concerns about depriving people of food

• difficult and messy to carry around and dispense in everyday settings

• differences in food preferences between individuals requires that one offer a variety of edibles

• consumption of food may distract child from behaviour they are attempting to learn (i.e., improve child’s concentration while studying)

Advantages of Social Reinforcers

• administered easily and quickly in any setting — little disruption of ongoing behaviour

• can be administered immediately

• occur naturally in people’s everyday lives for most kinds of behaviour

Learned Industruousness (Robert Eisenberger)

• reinforcing an individual for achieving a performance standard increases the likelihood of the individual performing at that level again

• when a high level of effort is followed by a reinforcer, that level of effort becomes less aversive and is more likely to generalize to other contexts

• person comes to enjoy the sensation of working hard because it is associated with, predictive of, reinforcement (work ethic)

• when a low level of effort is followed by reinforcer, the individual will not persist when faced with a task that requires a higher level of effort for success (lack resilience)

• generalize low level of effort to other tasks (learned laziness)