Registered Behavior Technician Training: Discrimination Training and Stimulus Control

Objectives and Core Concepts of Discrimination

  • Objectives of Rethink's Registered Behavior Technician (RBT) discrimination training module:

    • Understanding the definition of discrimination.
    • Learning how discriminations are formed through environment-behavior interactions.
    • Defining the procedure of discrimination training.
    • Mastering the specific steps required to implement discrimination training.
    • Evaluating the clinical effectiveness of a discrimination training procedure.

  • Definition of Discrimination:

    • Engaging in a specific behavior under certain environmental circumstances or antecedents, and refraining from engaging in that behavior under other circumstances.

  • Concrete Everyday Examples of Discrimination:

    • Object Identification: Looking at a picture of an apple and stating, "That's an apple," while refraining from making incorrect statements such as "That's a cat."
    • Traffic Compliance: Bringing a car to a full stop upon encountering a red traffic light, but continuing to drive without stopping when encountering a green traffic light.
    • Social Greeting Contexts: Saying "good morning" to family members when encountering them during morning hours, but refraining from saying "good morning" when meeting them at night.

The Three-Term Contingency and Contextual Antecedents

  • Fundamentals of Reinforcement and Behavior Change:

    • Behavior that produces reinforcement increases in frequency and becomes more likely to recur in similar future conditions.
    • Behavior that fails to produce reinforcement decreases in frequency and becomes less likely to recur in similar future conditions.

  • The Role of Antecedents in Contextual Behavior:

    • Antecedents provide contextual information regarding the specific situation or conditions under which a behavior was previously reinforced.
    • Behavior is strengthened and maintained within specific environmental contexts where reinforcement is reliably delivered (e.g., greeting family with "good morning" in the morning because they respond pleasantly and reinforce the greeting).
    • Behavior stops occurring in specific contexts where reinforcement is consistently withheld or not provided (e.g., refraining from saying "good morning" in the evening because family does not respond pleasantly or reinforce the behavior in that context).

Examples of Discrimination and Stimulus Control

  • Case Example: Julia's Car Borrowing Behavior:

    • Interaction with Mother: When Julia asks her mother if she can borrow the car, her mother consistently responds affirmatively ("yes") and allows her to borrow the car.
    • Interaction with Father: When Julia asks her father if she can borrow the car, her father consistently responds negatively ("no") and never allows her to borrow the car.
    • Resulting Behavioral Pattern: Julia demonstrates a high probability of asking her mother to borrow the car and a low probability of asking her father.
    • Behavioral Mechanism: Differential consequences applied to the identical vocal behavior ("Can I borrow the car?") lead directly to discrimination learning.

  • Principles of Stimulus Control:

    • The antecedent stimulus (Mother) exerts control over Julia's vocal request behavior.
    • Julia's behavior is formally classified as being under stimulus control.
    • Human behavior does not occur randomly; it occurs systematically in the presence of specific antecedent contexts or situations where it was reinforced historically.
    • Stimulus control is the direct product of discrimination training and serves as a foundational principle in behavior analysis when teaching novel skills to individuals with learning challenges.

Discrimination Training Procedures and Teaching Strategies

  • Definition of Discrimination Training:

    • A structured behavioral procedure that involves systematically reinforcing specific responses in the presence of a designated antecedent stimulus while withholding reinforcement for responses in the presence of other antecedent stimuli.

  • Procedure for Teaching a Single Object Label (Example: Ball):

    • Step 1 (Antecedent Presentation): The instructor holds up a ball in front of the learner.
    • Step 2 (Response): The student utters "ball", or the instructor provides prompting/assistance to help the student produce the vocal response "ball".
    • Step 3 (Consequence Delivery): The instructor immediately delivers reinforcement. Acceptable forms of reinforcers include:
    • Behavior-specific praise.
    • Physical tickles.
    • A highly preferred item.
    • Access to the ball itself.
    • Step 4 (Repetition): Steps 1 through 3 are repeated across multiple instructional trials.
    • Unreinforced Responses: If the instructor holds up the ball and the student produces an incorrect vocal response (e.g., saying "cookie"), reinforcement is strictly withheld.

  • Strategy for Teaching Multiple Target Responses Simultaneously:

    • Rationale: To prevent overgeneralization (e.g., preventing the learner from calling every presented object "ball"), multiple target responses must be introduced within the same teaching session.
    • Multi-Target Implementation (Example: Toy Car and Ball):
    • The instructor introduces a toy car into the session alongside the ball using identical discrimination training steps.
    • Reinforcement Rule for Car: The student receives reinforcement for saying "car" if and only if the instructor holds up the toy car.
    • Extinction Rule for Cross-Responses: If the instructor holds up the ball and the student says "car", no reinforcement is provided.
    • Reinforcement Rule for Ball: The student receives reinforcement for saying "ball" strictly when the instructor holds up the ball.
    • Outcome: Successful discrimination training leads directly to precise stimulus control over both target responses.

Demonstration and Dialogue Transcript

  • Instructional Interaction and Trial Sequence:
    • Instructor: "Hands down."
    • Student: [Places hands down]
    • Instructor: "Good. What's this?" [Presents toy car]
    • Student: "Car."
    • Instructor: "Good job. What's this?" [Presents ball]
    • Student: "Bow."
    • Instructor: "Wow. What's this?" [Presents ball]
    • Student: "Bow."
    • Instructor: "Nice work. And what's this?" [Presents toy car]
    • Student: "Car."
    • Instructor: "Car. Oh, you're so smart."

Data Collection, Analysis, and Evaluating Procedure Effectiveness

  • Data Collection Protocols:

    • As with all behavior analytic teaching protocols, continuous data must be collected and analyzed for every antecedent stimulus and its corresponding learner response to determine training efficacy.
    • Direct measurement requires logging the student's response to each presented antecedent stimulus specifically as correct or incorrect.

  • Data Analysis and Visual Inspection:

    • Raw data must be graphed to enable accurate visual analysis and evaluation of progress over time.

  • Evaluative Decision Rules:

    • Effective Procedure: An upward trend/increase in correct responses indicates that the discrimination training procedure is functioning effectively.
    • Ineffective Procedure: If correct responses fail to increase over time, the discrimination training procedure is deemed ineffective, requiring immediate consultation with the Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) supervisor to modify the intervention plan.