PSYC 365: Unit 6

Chapter 11 and 21

stimulus

anything that impinges on one’s sense receptors and thereby can affect behaviour

antecedent stimuli

the stimuli that are present just prior to the occurrence of the behaviour

ABC assessment

A— antecedent

B— behaviour

C— consequences

ex. swearing, throwing objects, jokes at inappropriate times

stimulus control

the degree of correlation between the occurrence of a particular antecedent and the occurrence of a subsequent response

good or effective stimulus control

refers to a strong correlation between the occurrence of a particular stimulus and a particular response

ex. dog sitting when a hand signal appears

ex. exercise equipment by the door to encourage exercise

discriminative stimulus

S^D — “ess-dee”

a stimulus in the presence of which an operant response will be reinforced

• a response will pay off

ex. S^D (other kids)—> Response (swearing)—>Reinforcer (approval of kids)

extinction stimulus

S^▲ - “ess-delta”

a stimulus in the presence of which an operant response will not be reinforced

S^▲ (grandparents)—>Response (swearing)—> Reinforcer (no positive attention)

stimulus vs discriminative stimulus

stimulus— something that causes a response or reaction

discriminative stimulus— a type of stimulus that signals the opportunity to respond

• comes first and triggers a specific behaviour

an example of a S^D for one behaviour and an S^▲ for a different behaviour

a friend asks you to pass them a book, S^D for your response of passing the book, and it is an S^▲ for you to pass the book

stimulus discrimination training

refers to the procedure of reinforcing a response in the presence of an S^D and extinguishing that response in the presence of an S^▲

effects of stimulus discrimination training

1. good stimulus control— a strong correlation between the occurrence of a particular stimulus and a particular response

2. good stimulus discrimination— a strong correlation between the occurrence of a response to an S^D, but not to an S^▲

ex. a child about to draw on their school desk will look for a teacher. The teacher’s presence will lead to punishment

stimulus generalization

refers to the procedure of reinforcing a response in the presence of a stimulus or situation and the effect of that stimulus or situation, but also in the presence of another stimulus or situation

• responds the same way to two different stimuli

ex. trauma response— fear towards a loud bang (fireworks) will remind them of an explosion

ex. a dog may respond to a bell the same way as a whistle

common-element stimulus class

a set of stimuli, all of which have one or more physical characteristics in common

ex. dogs, cars, colours, wet/dry, hard/soft

conceptual behaviour

when an individual understands a specific concept, such as red

• emits an appropriate response to all members of a common-element stimulus class and does not emit that response to stimuli that do not belong to that class

stimulus equivalence class

a set of completely dissimilar stimuli that an individual has learned to group or match together or respond in the same way

ex. 3, III, …

• common-element stimulus class

  • mean the same thing or share a common meaning

four factors responsible for the effectiveness of stimulus discrimination training

1. Is the stimulus different from other stimuli along more than one dimension? That is, is it different in location, size, colour, and sensory modality—vision, hearing, touch?

2. Is the stimulus one that can be presented only, or at least mainly, on occasions when the desired response should occur? This is to avoid confusion with the occurrence of the stimulus on other occasions

3. Is there a high probability of the person attending to the stimulus?

4. Are there any undesirable responses that might be controlled by the stimulus?

using technical terms, define an error in stimulus discrimination training

during stimulus discrimination training, a response to an S^▲ or a failure to respond to an S^D is referred to as an error

ex. answering the phone when not ringing or failure to answer when ringing are errors

contingency

if—then (Behaviour—consequence)

ex. if you move the light switch, the light will turn on

three-term contingency

if we describe both antecedents and consequences of a behaviour

• two types

  1. contingency-shaped behaviour

  2. rule-goverened behaviour

contingency-shaped behaviour

behaviour that develops because of its immediate consequences through trial and error

rule

describes a situation in which a behaviour will lead to a consequence

ex. the phone is ringing, now you can answer it

rule-governed behaviour

behaviour that is controlled by the statement of a rule

how lack of knowledge of stimulus discrimination training procedures can lead to undesirable behaviours

• not reinforcing responses to S^Ds and accidentally reinfocing responses to S^▲s

• if it takes multiple requests for a behaviour to stop consider the reinforcer

guidelines for effective use of stimulus discrimination training

1. choose distinct S^Ds and at least one S^▲ -specify conditions

2. select appropriate reinforcer

3. develop the discrimination

   a. arrange several reinforced responses in presence of S^D

   b. when S^▲ is presented, make the change from S^D obvious and follow the rules for extinction for behaviour of concern

4. weaning individual from program

why stimulus equivalence training supports a behavioural view of language learning

it is language learning because of teaching concepts and how things do or do not go together and helps to learn differences and similarities

contextual control

• teaching individuals to respond appropriately to the natural cues in their environment

• generalize skills to different contexts

motivation

“some thing” within us that causes our actions

• inner drives, needs, and wants that cause our actions

ex. works hard, shows up on time

• logical problem is it involves circular reasoning

three practical problems in viewing motivation as an internal cause of behaviour

1. the suggestion that the causes of behaviour are inside us rather than in the environment might influence some to ignore principles for changing behaviour

2. conceptualizing motivation as an internal cause of behaviour may influence some to blame the individual for poor performance

3. may influence some to blame themselves for failure to emit various behaviours rather than examining potential self-management strategies

motivating operation (MO)

is an event or operation that (a) temporarily alters the effectiveness of a reinforcer or punisher—a value altering effect, and (b) influences behaviour that leads to that reinforcer or punisher—a behaviour altering effect

• temporarily changes what you want and tells you how to get it

MO→ S^D→ R→ S^R

motivating establishing operations (MEOs)

an event or operation that temporarily increases the effectiveness of a reinforcer or punisher

motivating abolishing operations (MAOs)

an event or operation that temporarily decreases the effectiveness of a reinforcer or punisher and decreases the likelihood of behaviours

UMEO

the value-altering effect is innate, and the behaviour-altering effect is learned

ex. food deprivation, temperature

CMEO

value-altering and behaviour-altering affects are learned

ex. increased practice to earn points, timeout

UMAO

value-altering effect is innate, behaviour-learning effect is learned

ex. food satiation, heating a room increases going into it when cold

CMAO

both value-altering and behaviour-altering effects are learned

ex. points can no longer be redeemed→ decreases reinforcer of earning points

ex. decrease effectiveness of timeout

S^Ds compared to CMEOs

• S^D → stimulus that indicates a response will be reinforced— tells you what to do to get what you want

• CMEO→ makes you want something and tells you what to do to get it

S^▲ compared to CMAO

S^▲ → stimulus that indicates that a response will not be reinforced

CMAO → a stimulus that momentarily decreases the value of a conditioned reinforcer and decreases the likelihood of behaviour that has led to that reinforcer in the past

echoics

a vocal imitative response that is developed and maintained by social reinforcement

ex. adult says “say, dog,” child says “dog” and receives praise, response “dog” is echoic

tact

a naming response that is developed and maintained by social reinforcement

ex. parent points to a dog and asks “what’s that?”, child says “dog” and receives praise, response is tact

mand

a verbal response that is under the control of a motivating operation and is reinforced by the corresponding reinforcer or removal of the corresponding aversive stimulus

ex. if a child is hungry and asks for an “apple”, the child’s response “apple” is a mand

an MO that alters the effectiveness of multiple reinforcers

• chaining of steps to lead to a reinforcer

• use of signs and illustrations

intraverbal

a verbal response under the control of a preceding verbal stimulus with no point-to-point correspondence between the stimulus and the response

ex. “what do you want?” - adult

“apple” - child

unconditioned motivating operation (UMO)

innate stimuli or events that directly affect behavior by altering the value or potency of consequences

• They do not require prior conditioning to influence behavior.

  Ex. hunger, thirst, pain, or discomfort

conditioned motivating operation (CMO)

events or stimuli that have acquired their effectiveness through learning and can alter the value of consequences, influencing behavior.

reflexivity

the trained response of matching a stimulus to an identical stimulus and then matching the two stimuli in reverse without additional training. (i.e., If A=A, then A=A)

symmetry

trained relation of symbolically similar items and the demonstration of the relation in reverse without additional direct training. (i.e., If A=B, then B=A)

transitivity

when an untrained stimulus-stimulus relation emerges as a product of training two other stimulus-stimulus relations.