Stimulus control

What are stimuli?

physical events that affect the behavior of an individual

What is a stimulus class?

a group of antecedent stimuli that has a common effect on an operant class

What are the three main stimulus classes?

formal, temporal, and functional

What is a discriminative stimulus?

A stimulus that signals the availability of reinforcement

What is a stimulus delta?

a stimulus in the presence of which a given behavior has NOT produced reinforcement in the past

What is stimulus control?

when the rate/frequency, latency, duration, or amplitude of a response is altered in the presence of an antecedent stimulus

Stimulus control is acquired when what two things are true?

responses are reinforced only in the presence of a specific discriminative stimulus and NOT in the presence of other stimuli

What is stimulus salience?

prominence of the stimulus in a person’s environment

What are the two things that stimulus salience can be affected by?

masking and overshadowing

What is masking?

The behavior is already in the individual’s repertoire but is masked by other elements

What is an example of masking?

even though Harvey knows the answers to the teacher’s questions, he does not respond with peers around

What is overshadowing?

the individuals cannot learn the behavior because the learning is overshadowed by another element?

What is an example of overshadowing?

watching cheerleading or football practice outside the classroom window distracts the young student from learning algebra facts in math class

What is prompting?

a supplementary antecedent stimuli that are introduced to evoke a desired response when the discriminative stimulus is evident

What are the two times you should use prompting?

if you want to teach a skill quickly or to effectively produce target behaviors

What are the three steps for effective prompting?

present antecedent stimulus, prompt the correct behavior, and reinforce correct behavior whether prompted or not

What are the two types of prompts?

response prompts and stimulus prompts

What are response prompts?

they act on the response itself, NOT on the antecedent stimuli

What are a few common types of response prompts?

verbal, model, gestural, and physical

What are verbal prompts?

tell someone to do something or describe how to do something

What is an example of a verbal prompt?

pick up the pencil

What is a model prompt?

show someone how to perform the behavior

What is an example of a model prompt?

show someone how to attach jumper cables to the battery

What is a prerequisite for model prompting?

imitation

What is a gestural prompt?

motion toward the materials involved in behavior

What is an example of a gestural prompt?

“put the trash in the wastebasket” while pointing toward the wastebasket

What is a physical prompt?

use hand-over-hand guidance to help someone perform the behavior

What is an example of a physical prompt?

“pick up your toy” while using your hand to help guide the person’s hand to give the spoon to someone else

What is a pictorial prompt?

show someone a picture of the correct response

What is an example of a pictorial prompt?

hold up a picture of a cow when asking “what says moo?”

What is a prerequisite skill for pictorial prompts?

person is familiar with stimulus displayed in the picture or can perform skill as displayed in the picture

What are stimulus prompts?

act on the antecedent stimuli, NOT on the response

What are the two types of stimulus prompts?

within-stimulus prompts and extra-stimulus prompts

What are within-stimulus prompts?

change the salience of a discriminative stimulus so that a correct response can occur

What is an extra-stimulus prompting?

add a stimulus to help the person perform the behavior

What is the goal of stimulus control?

transfer stimulus control from the prompt to more natural discriminative stimuli

What are three ways to transfer stimulus control?

Prompt fading, prompt delay, stimulus fading

What is the least-to-most prompt fading?

start with the least intrusive prompt and gradually increase the intensity of the prompts

What is a limitation of least to most prompt fading?

can lead to frequent errors

What is most to least prompt fading?

start with most intrusive prompts and then fade the intensity

What is time delay prompt fading?

gradually increase the delay to the prompt

What is graduated guidance?

utilizing the minimal amount of physical prompting required to occasion the correct response and then gradually reducing physical prompts

What is stimulus fading?

gradually remove the stimulus prompt until behavior occurs under natural discriminate stimulus

What is stimulus shaping?

systematic and gradual transformation of the physical shape of the stimulus

What is errorless learning?

instructional methods specifically designed to prevent or substantially minimize any learner errors that are used to teach discriminations

What is stimulus equivalence?

the emergence of accurate responding to un-trained and non-reinforced stimulus-stimulus relations following the reinforcement of responses to some stimulus-stimulus relations

What is stimulus equivalence used for?

useful for teaching complex verbal relations