sped 454 quiz 2

positive reinforcement

any stimulus, when presented after the occurrence of a behavior, that increases the future occurrence of that behavior. 2 parts:
1. if in a given situation someone does something that is followed immediately by a certain consequence,
2. then that person is more likely to do the same thing again when she or he next encounters a similar situation

ignore inappropriate behavior

some students try to get a reaction from a teacher when they are bored. to the teacher's way of thinking, a negative reaction, perhaps in the form of a verbal reprimand, should decrease the misbehavior. sometimes the teacher's negative reaction serves to positively reinforce the inappropriate behavior. Therefore, an important part of positive reinforcement is to _______ as many of students' undesirable behaviors as possible.

3 conditions for ignoring inappropriate behavior

1. ignoring should NOT be used with behaviors that are dangerous to the offending student or others. EX: students who damage property, hurt themselves or others
2. for ignoring to be effective, peers must also ignore the inappropriate behavior.
3. if a student is preoccupied with the inappropriate behavior, he may not notice he is being ignored.

reinforce immediately

A positive reinforcer strengthens any response that it immediately follows. the failure to reinforce immediately may result in inappropriate behavior inadvertently being reinforced.

superstitious behavior

reinforcing students immediately reduces the likelihood that a positive reinforcer and a non-targeted behavior will inadvertently be paired. When this condition occurs--usually because reinforcement was not delivered immediately ______ is said to develop.

reinforce contingently

a contingency involves precisely defining the circumstances under which a behavior will produce a specific consequence. "if-then" relation.

conditioning

by repeatedly receiving reinforcement after the desired behavior occurs, students can make the association that certain behavior results in reinforcement. _____ is most likely to occur when reinforcement is administered immediately.

recognize that reinforcement is individual

it is unfair to assume that all students will respond to a reinforcer, even food, in the same way. find out what is reinforcing to each student by:
1. preference scales
2. preference lists
3. interviews with students
4. interviews with parents or teachers,
5. direct observation

Premack principle

states that a high-probability behavior is contingent on the occurrence of a low-probability behavior. a high-probability behavior is one that students have a greater likelihood of engaging in when they have free access to preferred activities. If children have free access to eat whatever they want, some foods have a higher probability of being eaten than others. EX: after you eat your spinach, you can have a bowl of ice cream. sometimes called "mom's rule"

restrict access to reinforcement

positive reinforcement is effective when students have access to it only after performing the desired behavior. this guideline makes use of the behavior principles of satiation and deprivation

satiation

occurs when students have experienced the reinforcer to such an extent that it is no longer reinforcing. important to give only a small amount of the reinforcer for each appropriate behavior performed.

deprivation

the time prior to students' receiving positive reinforcement. most reinforcers will not be effective unless students have gone without them for some period of time prior to their use. the longer the _____ time the more effective the reinforcer will be

free-access rule

states that the maximum amount of a reinforcer available to students should be less than that which they would seek if they had free access to it.

reinforce approximations of behavior

most behaviors consist of complex steps that must be mastered before the terminal goal can be reached

shaping

the process of reinforcing successively closer approximations of the target behavior. involves breaking down the desired behavior into its subcomponents and then reinforcing students as they provide reinforcement for performance of each of the steps toward the final behavior

stimulus-response chain

each response produces the discriminative stimuli (cue) for the next response (behavior). it is "discriminative' because the student can distinguish a stimulus that prompts a behavior from one that does not. it is a "chain" because multiple stimuli and responses exist before the terminal behavior is performed.

backward chaining

the terminal response in the chain is conditioned first. the response that preceded it is next conditioned - and so on until the initial response in the chain is performed. starting with the end result and working backwards EX: tying shoes

continuous reinforcement

reinforcing every instance of the desirable behavior- is used to establish a new behavior. do not have to worry about satiation at first, helpful to move to an intermittent schedule of reinforcement as soon as behavior is being consistently performed

reinforce intermittently after behavior is established

once a behavior is established, we can move to one of the intermittent schedules of reinforcement. an intermittent schedule is more feasible and natural approach to maintaining it.

primary reinforcer

any stimulus that is reinforcing in itself EX: food, sleep, water -- cant live w/o

conditioned reinforcer

is not originally reinforcing but acquires reinforcing power through association with a stimulus that is reinforcing. EX: money -- reinforcing because you can trade it in for something that is reinforcing to you. also called secondary reinforcer

generalized conditioned reinforcer

money - special type of a secondary reinforcer, can be exchanged for limitless number of things

negative reinforcement

states that there are certain stimuli whose removal immediately after we perform a behavior will increase the likelihood that we will perform that behavior in the future. (still will increase behavior) EX: you run out of the house late bc you are late for work, only to find out its down pouring -- we will now increase the occurrence of checking the weather before leaving to decrease the aversive stimulus (rain)

escape conditioning

we are engaging in a behavior to escape some aversive stimulus

negative reinforcement trap

students learn to behave in ways that allow them to escape aversive stimuli EX: student makes animal noise -- teacher finds it aversive & sends him to hallway -- student is reinforced b/c finds lesson aversive so makes animal noises in the future to avoid lesson and be sent to hallway again -- becomes negatively reinforced

avoidance conditioning

a behavior is performed to prevent the occurrence of an aversive stimulus . A behavior will increase in frequency if it prevents an aversive stimulus from occurring. We avoid being exposed to the aversive stimulus by first engaging in some behavior EX: putting on seatbelt before turning on car to avoid dinging noise

Schedule of reinforcement

refers to the specific way reinforcement is programmed to occur as a result of the number of responses and the time between responses

fixed-ratio (FR) schedule

reinforcement occurs each time a set number of behaviors of a particular type are performed. EX: if a teacher wants a student to complete 10 math problems before receiving reinforcement, the student is on an FR-10 schedule

ratio strain

if too much responding is required, or if the amount of responding required to receive reinforcement is increased too rapidly, this occurs EX: if a student is required to complete 50 math problems before receiving reinforcement, they will be too tired to complete another 50 problems before receiving reinforcement

variable-ratio (VR) schedule

the number of responses required to receive reinforcement changes unpredictably from one reinforcement to the next.

fixed-duration (FD) schedule

reinforcement occurs after the behavior has been engaged in for a certain continuous period. EX: you cannot go out until you play your instrument for a certain amount of time

variable-duration (VD) schedule

the amount of continuous time the behavior must be engaged in to produce reinforcement changes unpredictably from one reinforcement to the next. EX: rubbing two sticks together to start a fire

fixed-interval (FI) schedule

the first instance of a particular behavior being performed after a fixed period of time (usually measured from the time of previous reinforcement or beginning of a lesson) is reinforced - the length of time that passes until reinforcement is available stays the same

variable interval (VI) schedule

the time that must elapse before reinforcement becomes available, rather than being constant, changes unpredictably from one reinforcement to the next EX: whale watching - you do not know when a whale will come to surface

limited hold

reinforcement is available for set period of time - the same as an FI or VI schedule, with a slight modification, but one that has a powerful effect on behavior. EX: after a initial 5-minute interval has elapsed, the student has only 1 minute to engage in the behavior to earn reinforcement

application of contingent stimulation

first type of punishment (type 1 punishment), involves following a specific behavior with some stimulus EX: spanking, "stop talking, now!"

contingent withdrawal of a positive reinforcer

second type of punishment (type 2 punishment or negative punishment), any positive reinforcer can become a punisher if it is removed after a problem behavior. EX: a child is throwing paper and the teacher says she has to stay in from recess, as a result if paper throwing decreases, punishment has occurred, cell phones taken away

response cost

third type of punishment, some behavior costs the individuals something they liked. EX: getting a speeding ticket - "costs" something the speeder values as a positive reinforcer

conditioned punishers

just as a stimulus that signals reinforcement become reinforcing itself, so, too, can a stimulus that signals punishment become punishing itself. The exclamations "no!" and "stop that!" are examples of stimuli that become ______ because they often are followed by type 1 or 2 punishment if the person continues to engage in the inappropriate behavior. EX: fines - not punishing in and of itself, but become punishing when paired with some other punisher - such as paying money

extinction

withholding reinforcement for a conditioned response leads to ______. decreases behavior by withholding reinforcement. Has 2 parts:
1. if, in a given situation, somebody displays a previously reinforced response and it is not followed by the usual reinforcing consequence,
2. then that person is less likely to perform the same behavior again when she next encounters a similar situation.

extinction curve

extinction of behavior takes place gradually until the behavior occurs no more often than it did prior to being reinforced. During extinction, the behavior may increase before it begins to decrease. This is b/c they are no longer getting the attention they find reinforcing

spontaneous recovery

behavior that is completely suppressed through the use of extinction or punishment may subsequently reappear. if teacher forgets and tells child "be quiet" that behavior is now reinforced at a level higher than before

forgetting

a decrease in a behavior as a result of not being able to perform it over time. EX: teachers review what students learned at the end of last school year b/c students often forget since knowledge of content did not occur over a period of time - The behavior does not occur for awhile because of the lack of opportunity to respond

stimulus control

certain behaviors occur in the presence of some stimuli and not others EX: phone rings - you pick it up. light turns red - you stop. these stimuli exert a powerful control over behavior, whereas others have no appreciable effect. EX: getting junk mail rarely leads to you reading it

stimulus discrimination

the procedure by which students learn to express appropriate behavior in the presence of the "right" stimuli and not the "wrong" stimuli. EX: figuring out what teachers are lenient and which are not

stimulus generalization

opposite of stimulus discrimination, occurs when individuals respond in a similar manner to different stimuli. can be positive & negative. EX: burping and saying excuse me & also saying excuse me when passing by someone.

fading

the gradual change of the stimulus controlling a behavior, such that the behavior eventually occurs as the result of a partially changed or completely new antecedent stimulus. EX: having students trace a letter, write the letter in dots and have the students trace over that, then the teacher fades the cue completely by requiring students to write the letter w/o any visual cue. ITs a cue or prompt to engage in behavior/when we change stimuli from obvious to something that is not

response class

refers to a group of responses (behaviors) that have at least one characteristic in common. EX: grunting, walking up to teacher, raising hand, calling teachers name = all similar in that they are trying to get teacher attention

differential reinforcement

involves reinforcing a certain behavior(s) from a response class and extinguishing all other members of that class. EX: give attention to good behaviors such as walking up to teacher & calling teachers name, while ignoring bad behaviors such as grunting

response differentiation

when students are able to differentiate which behaviors of response class will result in reinforcement and which ones will not