Behavioral analysis Exam 4

escape behavior

the occurrence of the behavior results in the termination of an aversive stimulus that was already present when the behavior occurred

Avoidance behavior

behavior that occurs before the aversive stimulus is presented and thereby prevents its delivery

shuttle avoidance procedure

First escaping the adverse stimulus and then over a series of trials, learning to avoid it. Like a rat jumping over a wall when a light goes off, because it has learned that a shock will follow.

two-process theory of avoidance

Mower, composed of 2 parts:

1, the classical conditioning to a cs:cs elicits fear response

2, operant conditioning moving away from cs is negative reinforcement by reduction in fear

difficulties found with the two-process theory of avoidance

avoidance behaviors are often extremely persistent, even when they are no longer necessary

After many repeated avoiding trials animals appear to show no evidence of a changed, lessened fear response

anxiety conservation hypothesis

positive modification: avoidance response form so quickly that there is insufficient exposer to the cs for the conditioned fear response to be extinguished

one process theory of avoidance

the act of avoidance is negatively reinforced simply by the lower rate of aversive stimulation with which it is associated

limitation

experimental avoidance in animals seems to condition less readily than phobia avoidance in humans. it takes atleast a few pairings of cs and us before avoidance has been established

Stampfils beliefs

critical factor in maintenance og phobic behaviors is that the avoidance response occurs early in the sequence of events leading up to phobic stimulus, minimizing effort involved in avoiding stimulus.

OCD

an anxiety disorder characterized by unwanted repetitive thoughts (obsessions, bring anxiety up) and/or actions (compulsions, bring anxiety down)

Onset of OCD

Early adolescence to mid 20s (typically earlier in males than females), but ritualistic behaviours are often observable in childhood; Frontal lobes play an important role.

associated with a stressful event in life.

Exposure and response prevention

A behavioral treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder that exposes a client to anxiety-arousing thoughts or situations and then prevents the client from performing his or her compulsive acts. Also called exposure and ritual prevention.

Thoughts triggered by OCD

people with OCD often think that they need to be in control of everything, including their thoughts. they fail to realize that some thoughts are respondents automatically elicited by stimuli. feel personally responsible for unprovable events.

approach avoidance conflict

A conflict in which there are both appealing, reinforcers, and negative aspects, punishers, to the decision to be made.

Punishment later seems not so bad in these situations as it isn't a short term effect

negative, time out

loss of access to positive reinforcers for a brief period after a problem behavior. need to be breif and time out area needs to not be reinforcing

negative, response cost

the removable of a specific reinforcer following a problem behavior. Pro, this can be easily modified based on the severity of the behavior

drawback, must clearly identify a reinforcer that will impact behavior

intrinsic negitive punsihment

activity or behavior that is naturally punishing

extrinsic negative punishment

Something following a behavior that is innately punishing

primary (unconditional) punisher

event that is innately punishing- born to dislike

secondary (conditioned) punisher

event that is punishing because of past association with other punishers (e.g., going to a doctor who often gives you a needle) also a generalized punisher

problems with punishment

the punishment of a maladaptive behav. doesn't directly strengthing occurrence of adaptive behav.

of 1 behav. may result in generalized suppression of other behav.

person delivering punishment can become SD for punishment, maybe teaching to suppress behav. near that person

aggressive reaction-strong emotional responses

teaches it is a acceptable means of controlling behavior

Benefits to using punishment

can lead to an increase in social behavior

improvement in mood-such as less crying

can increase attention to the environment

requirements that should be met to maximize possibility of effectiveness

punishment should be immediate not delayed

punishment should follow each occurrence of unwanted behavior

should be intense from onset to supress target behavior

neg punishment is better/ more effective that pos punishment and less abusive

more effective when accompanied by an explanation

punishment for a inappropriate behavior should be combined with pos rein. for a wanted behavior

conditioned suppression theory

doesn't weaken a behavior but instead produces an emotional response that interferes with occurrence of the behavior- behavior will come back- stronger punishment = longer suppression time

avoidance theory of punishment

involves avoidance conditioning in which the avoidance response consist of any behavior other than the one being punished.

Premack principle of punishment

a LPB can be used to punish a HPB, assuming the punishment is the opposite if the reinforcement

learned helplessness

Seligman's term for a state of helplessness or resignation, in which human or nonhuman animals learn that escape from something painful is impossible; the organism stops responding and may become depressed

inescapable shock condition

an experiment where dogs received a series of shocks but where uncapable of doing anything, each dog was paried up with a dog of the opposite condition. these dogs, when put into a condition where the shock was escapable, still didn't do anything to avoid it. this can be revered if dog is forced to escape.

escapable punishment

dog received a series of shocks and where able to press a button to terminate them. there was also dogs in a no shock condition

mossman experimental neurosis

using an adverse stimulus with cats while they were eating to develop phobic, and neurotic-like symptoms responses to cues associated with feeding. "get it over with"

concurrent schedules

Consists of two or more schedules operating simultaneously but independently of each other, each for a different response. gives the organism a choice of responding to 1 over the other

Matching Law

allocation of responses to choices available on concurrent schedules of reinforcement; rates of responding across choices are distributed in proportions that match the rates of reinforcement received from each choice alternative

Undermatching

the proportion of responses on the richer schedule versus the poorer schedule is less different than would be predicted by matching

Overmatching

the proportion of responses on the richer schedule versus the poorer schedule is more different than would be predicted by matching

bias from matching

occurs when one response alternative attracts a higher proportion of responses than would be predicted by matching, regardless of whether that alternative contains the richer or poorer schedule of reinforcement

melioration theory

the distribution of behavior in a choice situation shifts toward those alternatives that have higher value regardless of the long-term effect on the overall amount of reinforcement

3 ways a substantial reduction in the total amount of reinforcement obtained can occur

1, an alternative may not require as much responding as one is distributing towards it to obtain all available reinforcement

2, overindulgence in a highly reinforcing alternative can often result in long term habituation to that alternative, reducing its reinforcing value

3, melioration is often the result of a behavior being too governed by immediate consequences as opposed to delayed

Skinner on Self-Control

Managing conflicting outcomes involves two types of responses: a controlling response that serves to alter the frequency of a controlled response

phsyical restraint

physically restraining/manipulating the environment to prevent the occurrence if an unwanted behavior

Depriving and Satiating

utilize motivating operations of deprivation and satiation to alter extent to which certain event can act as reinforcer

doing something else

prevent engaging in certain behaviors by performing alternate behavior

Self-Reinforcement and Self-Punishment

Administering consequences to oneself. Students may be taught to select reinforcers (or punishers), determine criteria for their delivery, and deliver the consequences to themselves.

more effective when other people are made aware of the contingencies

Self control as a temporal issue

lack of self-control arises from the fact that our behavior is more heavily influenced by immediate consequences than by delayed consequences

Mischel's Delay of Gratification Paradigm

Study of self-control using children, pretzels, and marshmallows

Extent to which children avoided paying attention to reward had significant effect on their resistance to temptation

Manner in which children thought about rewards made a difference (example = viewing marshmallows as clouds)

Children who devised tactics enabling them to wait for preferred reward were, at 17 years of age, more "cognitively and socially competent"

Ainslie-Rachlin Model of Self-Control

Focuses on the fact that preferences can change over time.

value of a reward is hyperbolic function of delay - increases more and more sharply as delay decreases

Changing the Shape of the Delay Function for the Larger Later Reward

there appears to be innate differences in impulsive between different species. less deeply scalloped pattern for humans

some individuals may be more/less impulsive than others in nature

people become less impulsive with age

people become less impulsive after repeated expirience with responding for delayed rewards

the availability of other rein. may also serve to reduce impulsivness

it is easier to maintain responding if you set sub-goals

commitment response

an action carried out at an early point in time that serves to either eliminate or reduce the value of an upcoming temptation

small-but-cumulative effects model

a model of self-control in which each individual choice between a smaller sooner and larger later reward has only a small but cumulative effect on our likelihood of obtaining the desired outcome

Observational Learning in Classical Conditioning

Vicarious emotional conditioning is classically conditioning of emotional responses that result from seeing those emotional responses exhibited by others. can be unconscious

contagious behavior

instinctive or reflexive behavior triggered by the occurrence of the same behavior in another individual, yawning is the most common example

stimulus enhancement

a process in which observation of other individuals causes an organism's attention to be directed toward specific objects or events within an environment. probability of the behavior is changed.

acquisition

In operant conditioning, and operant response through observational learning requires that the observer pays attention to behavior of model.

if the models behavior is rein. more likely to attend to behavior

observer receives rein. for attending

whether observer has sufficient skills to benefit from modeling

if personal characteristics of a model can strongly influence if observer will attend to their behavior

preformance

we are more/less likely to preform behav. when we have seen it rein. on a model.

effect of consequences is vicarious rein/pun.

more/less likely when we will receive consequences for preforming behavior.

our own history of rein. or pun. for preforming modeled behaviors

true imitation

a form of observational learning that involves the close duplication of a novel behavior

Generalization imitation

the tendency to imitate other modeled behaviors even though the specific imitative behavior is not the one being reinforced

Social Learning and Aggression

Learning aggressive behavior and the consequences of such behavior impact likelihood of being aggressive.

bandura's bobo doll experiment

- boys are more likely to be aggressive spontaneously while girls are more likely when the model is female and there is no incentive

predisposition to aggression to females will make them more likely to be victims

rule-governed behavior

behavior controlled by a rule; enables human behavior to come under the indirect control of temporally remote or improbable but potentially significant consequences.

Extremely useful for rapidly establishing appropriate patterns of behavior. We decide what behaviors to have based on consequences to rules.

rule-governed behavior drawbacks

Role govern behaviors, often less efficient than behavior shaped by natural consequences. Such behavior can be insensitive to the actual contingency of reinforcement operating in a particular setting.

personal rules

Self instructions, verbal descriptions of contingencies that we present to ourselves to influence behaviors

say-do correspondence

When there is a close match between what we say, we will do and what we actually do

personal process rules

Specific process of what we will do, when, how, and what needs to happen to achieve an end goal.