Untitled Flashcards Set

Lecture Summary Notes

Lecture 1: Introduction to ABA (part 1)

Basic principles of behaviour analysis can be used across a range of situations to modify behaviour.
Focus on community behaviour change, modifying everyday behaviour.

APA Definition

"A science devoted to the understanding and improvement of human behaviour."
"The science in which tactics derived from principles of behaviour are applied systematically to improve socially significant behaviour and experimentation is used to identify the variables for behaviour change"

Behaviour analysis as a science

Science definition:

"A systematic approach for seeking and organising knowledge about the natural world"

Basic characteristics of science: (Cooper, Heron and Heyward)

Description

Definition

Studies/Experiments/key authors

"A science devoted to the understanding and improvement of human behaviour."
"The science in which tactics derived from principles of behaviour are applied systematically to improve socially significant behaviour and experimentation is used to identify the variables for behaviour change"

A collection of facts about observed events, which can then be quantified, classified, and examined for possible relations with other facts.
EG. Natural rates of approval and disapproval by teachers.

Prediction
When two (or more) events occur together reliably, the occurring of one event predicts the likelihood of the other occurring.
Correlation ≠ causation
EG. 1.5•C increase in temperature is related to increases in deaths due to car accidents, drownings and violence.

Control
Highest level of scientific understanding Functional relations exist when:

o Aspecificchangeinoneevent(dependent/measuredvariable)...
o Can be produced reliably by specific manipulations of another event (independent/

manipulated variables)...
o And the change in the dependent variable is unlikely to be due to other confounds.

Attitudes of science:

Determinism
Key assumption for science
The universe is a lawful and orderly place, in which all phenomena occur as a result of other events
Events don’t just happen at random - they are related in a systematic way

Empiricism
"The practice of objective observation of the phenomena of interest"
Forms the basis for scientific investigation- facts, observation, experimentation Being "objective" is important

Experimentation

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A controlled comparison of the phenomena if interest (DV) under the manipulation of tow of

more conditions (IV) Replication

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B.F. Skinner

Repeating an experiment, with the same pattern of finings each time
Experiments have to be replicated a number of times to check for consistency ad ensure data were collected reliably.

Parsimony
The simplest and most logical explanation is often best

Philosophic doubt
"regard no practice as immutable. Change and be ready to change again. Accept no eternal verity. Experiment"
Scientists should continuously question truth and facts

Brief History of ABA

Behaviourism

Psychology in the early 1900s dominated by studying mental states, largely through introspection.
J.B Watson "father of behaviourism"

o Psychology should study observable behaviour, not states of mind or mental processes. Direct observation between environmental stimuli (S) and the response evoked ( R)

The behaviour of Organisms. Described 2 types of behaviour- Respondent and operant. Respondent behaviour:

o Reflexivebehaviours
o Respondents are elicited by stimuli that immediately precedes them.
o Involuntaryresponsethatoccurwhenevertheelicitingstimulusispresented.

Operant behaviour
o Voluntarybehaviours
o Behavioursaren'telicitedbyprecedingstimuli
o Instead, behaviour is shaped through its consequences o Threetermcontingency(S-R-Smodel)

Experimental analysis of behaviour (EAB)

Applied behaviour analysis (ABA)

Fuller (1949)

One of the first studies to apply operant principles to human behaviour
Participants: 18 year old boy with profound developmental disabilities
Target behaviour: arm raising, was reinforced by warm sugar milk drink injected into the participants mouth each time he moved his arm.
Within 4 sessions, participant was raising his arm three times a minute.

Ayllon and Michael (1959)

The Psychiatric Nurser as a behavioural engineer
Described techniques based on principles of operant behaviour for nurses to improve the functioning of residents with psychotic disorders or intellectual disabilities.
Formed the basis for ABA brand of behaviour analysis

Growth of ABA

1950-1960: replications of basic operant principles with human participants, usually in clinic or lab setting.

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1960's- application of behaviour principles t improve socially important behaviours 1960-1970: many new university ABA programmes in US were established
1968: Journal of ABA began publication

The seven dimensions of ABA (Baer, Wolf, Risley, 1968)
BAT CAGE = (Behaviour, applied, technological, conceptually systematic, analytic, generality, effective)
Applied

investigates socially significant behaviours with immediate importance to the participant Behavioural

precise measurements of the actual behaviour in need of improvement, and documents that it was the participants behaviour that changed
Measure actual behaviours in the environment - make sure it’s the actual behaviour is changing. Observable and measurable

Analytic
Demonstrates experimental control over the occurrences and non-occurrences of the behaviour.
Demonstrate function relation - when we have experimental control over occurrence or non occurrence of behaviour by introducing a stimulus in the environment
Reliably demonstrate the behaviour occurs when manipulation is in play.

Technological
The written description of all procedures used in the study is sufficiently complete and detailed to enable others to replicate it.
Extremely detailed so its able to be replicated.

Conceptually systematic
Behaviour change interventions are derived from basic principles of behaviour

Effective
Improves behaviour sufficiently to produce practical results for the participants or client Improvements of behaviour must reach clinical or social significance

Generality
Produces behaviour change that lasts over time, appear in other environments or spread to other behaviours

Additional characteristics:

ABA offers an approach toward problems that is:
Accountable: Provides socially valuable form of accountability
Public - we can see clearly that the impact has occurred on behaviour
Doable - easy things that we can apply
Empowering - When you give people these techniques it increases their confidence that they can apply them
Optimistic - Give us a nice optimistic view of the world - open up possibilities

Lecture 2: Introduction to ABA (part 2)

Behaviour and Reponses

Behaviour is the interaction of a live organism with its environment which involves movement of an organism through time and space. It results in a measurable change in the environment.

Behaviour usually refers to a larger set or classes of responses that share certain functions or topographies (forms)

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A response is a single instance of a behaviour.

Function Vs. topography

In ABA, a behaviour is often defined in terms of its function (the effect it has on the environment)

Identifying the function of a behaviour is known as functional analysis.

Response class: a set of behaviours that share the same function. Response topography refers to the physical shape or form of behaviour

All behaviours occurs within an environment
The environment includes "everything expect the moving parts of the organism involved in the behaviour
Particular aspect of the environment are known as stimuli

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Example:
Behaviour = jumping behaviour
Response= once instance of jumping
Response class= a group of responses with the same function (jumping into leaf pile for fun) Response topography= the different physical types of jumping

Environment

Stimulus classes

Stimuli can be described in terms of:
Form = physical features
Function = effect of the stimuli on behaviour
Temporal location = when they occur in relation to behaviour

A group of stimuli that share the same form, function and temporal location is known as a stimulus class

Antecedents and Consequences

Three term contingency (ABC)
Antecedent --> Behaviour --> Consequence

Respondent vs operant behaviour

US= unconditioned stimulus UR= unconditioned response CS= Conditioned Stimulus CR= conditioned response

Respondent conditioning:

Antecedent: Environmental conditions or stimulus changes that exist or occur prior to the behaviour of interest
Consequence: A stimulus change that occurs after the behaviour of interest.

Respondent extinction: occurs when the CS is repeatedly presented with the US

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Higher order/secondary conditioning can occur when neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with the CS
While widely presented in a persons life, ABA does not tend to focus on respondent conditioning

Operant behaviour

Types of consequences:

Reinforcement

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Voluntary behaviour
Operant behaviour is selected shaped and maintained by the consequences that have followed in the past.
Consequences can make behaviours more likely or less likely to occur again

When a behaviour is followed closely in time by a stimulus change, and , as a result, the future frequency of that type of behaviour increases

o Positivereinforcement=occurswhenabehaviourisfollowedbythepresentationof a stimulus

o Negative reinforcement = occurs when a behaviour is followed by the withdrawal of a stimulus

Punishment

When a behaviour is followed closely in time by a stimulus change and as a result the future frequency of that type of behaviour decreases

o Positive punishment= occurs when a behaviour is followed by the presentation of a stimulus

o Negative punishment = occurs when a behaviour is followed by the withdrawal of a stimulus

Unconditioned reinforcers are those things that will increase the likelihood of behaviour without prior experience

Unconditioned punisher are those things that will decrease the likelihood of behaviour without prior experience

Anything that functions as a reinforcer or punisher that is not related to a biological need Conditioned reinforcers become reinforcers by being paired with other, already established reinforcers

Unconditioned reinforcers and punishers

o Related to biological needs e.g., food, water, sex, warmth

o E.g., pain or any stimulus at a great intensity (light, sound, etc.) Conditioned reinforcers and punishers

Contingencies

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Outline the relation between the behaviour and its consequence
When a consequence (reinforcer or punisher) is delivered only following a behaviour, we say that the consequence is contingent upon the behaviour

Antecedents

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Signal that reinforcement is available (or not) for a behaviour
When a behaviour occurs in the present of an antecedent but not in its absence, we can say that the behaviour is under control of the antecendent stimulus; this is known as stimulus control
The antecedent is called the discriminative stimulus (SD)
The behaviour is known as a discriminated operant

Three term contngency example

A= Sign t o stop for 3 seconds
B= drive thorugh without stopping C= gets ticket by police

Positive punihsmnet as it decreases the likelihood of driving thorugh stop sign in the future

Motivating operations

The value of a reinforcer can change
Things that momentarily alter the reinforcing (or punishing) properties of stimuli are called motivating operations

The selections of a new behaviour

Reinforcers can be used to teach new behaviours
Behaviour is variable. This allows selection of the most efficient repones

Shaping a new behaviour

Choose a target behaviour
Provide reinforcers for closer and closer approximations of that behaviour

Continuous vs intermittent reinforcers

When a behaviour is being established, all instances of a behaviour are followed by a reinforcer
However, this is not necessary to maintain a behaviour
Intermittent reinforcers refer to the practice of reinforcing behaviour on some occasions but not others

Reinforcement and extinction

When previously available reinforcement is withdrawn (behaviour is no linger effective), the behaviour is said to be put under extinction
Extinction results in a decrease of the previously reinforced behaviour, and the behaviour may stop altogether

Extinction effects

Extinction can also result in an increase in other behaviours
A behaviour that has been reinforced intermittently is more likely to persist during extinction than a behaviour that has been followed by a reinforcer on every occurrence (Partial reinforcemnte extinction effect, PREE)

Behaviour principles: describe how behaviour works

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Individual differences:
In the same environmental conditions, different people response in different ways Can include sensitivity to stimuli and our ability to respond

Lecture 3: ABA and Community Behaviour Change

The social environment

1. 2.

Human have the tendency to spend time in clsoe proximity with others
We have learninf potential - human behaviour can be adapted to current environmental events.
Human behaviour is susceptible to operant selections

Culture: Patterns of learned behaviour transmitted socially, as well as the products of that behaviour object, tech, organisations, etc)

Behavioural tactics: are how principles are used in interventions to help people learn socially significant behaviours

Culture

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The behaviour of others can function as the antecedent or consequence for the behaviour of another person
Although the stimulus events may be social, the learning principles involve the same process Social learning and individual learning refer to the same thing - all learning is individual; what differs us whether the environmental events are social or non social.

Cultural practices

Have two important characteristics
They include many people performing the same or similar repeated actions Those actions have at least one consequence - often more.

Macro behaviour: a class of behaviours that make up a cultural practice

As well as immediate consequences, these behaviours contribute to a cumulative effect which is a result of many people performing the same action.
Examples:

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Simplest intervention type
Sign, posters, flyers
Specify clear actions
Located close to the place where people make decisions about target behaviour Prompts should be obtrusive and noticeable

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Macro Contingencies: the relation between the cultural practice and the cumulative effects that occur due to the repeated actions of individuals.

To change cultural practices, need to change the behaviour of many individuals. Individuals behaviour is responsive to own social environment.
Therefore we need to modify the operant contingencies in place to change the behaviour of as many individuals as possible.

Intervention Strategies for behaviour change

Prompts

Visual or auditory aid to remind people to carry out an activity (that they might have otherwise forgotten to do)

Engerman, Austin & Bailey (1997)

Verbal prompts were given in a supermarket carpark by grocery carriers about safety belt use. Found 12% increase from baseline in safety belt use with verbal prompts.

Houghton (1993)

Verbal and visual prompts were used to try reduce littering in two Australian high schools. Posters with arrows pointing to bins and asking them to place rubbish in bins provided, principal reminded students each morning.
5 phases, Baseline, verbal, verbal + visual, visual, baseline.

Results: combination of verbal and visual was most effective at increasing behaviour. Reduction was maintained during follow up period.

Commitment

A written or oral promise to change behaviour
Can be written or verbal, public or private, individual or group.
People like to be consistent between what they say and what they do. ( cognitive dissonance occurs when people are inconsistent; behaviour change occurs so that they are consistent with themselves)

Bryce, Day & Olney (1997)

Commitment intervention used to encourage kerbside recycling in Dunedin
Half the participants were asked to make a verbal commitment to recycling, the other half were not. Both groups received information and promotional material.
Results: verbal commitment group recycled significantly more often than the no commitment group.

Education & Awareness

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Sign: "1: wet down 2: turn off water 3: soap up 4: rinse off."
Only 6% compliance rate on the wall, 19% compliance rate when places on a tripod at shower entrance.
Confederate modelled the produce in the presence of another student - compliance increased to 49%

Feedback

Giving people feedback about their performance or progress towards the target behaviour Good for behaviours that are hard for people to monitor their own
Feedback can be quantitative or qualitative
Often used in conjunction with commitment and goal setting

Van Houten & Nau (1983)

Investigated whether a weekly feedback sign on a 100km/hr highway in Nova Scotia could reduce speeding.

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Education and awareness strategies inform people of the reasoning behind the targeted change in behaviour
Provides information that increases peoples awareness about an issue and how to solve the issue.

Better In small groups than larger groups
Interactive demonstrations between than lecturing or showing films to a passive audience Strategies should encourage participation
Mixed results

Modelling

Modelling desired behaviours, so that people conform to perceived social norms
Can be done through live demonstrations or videos
Needs to be understandable, relevant, meaningful and rewarding
Tipping point theory: social norms only change when you have enough people who ate well connected, well informed and good communicators to all promote the same message.

Aronson (1990)

Sign used to promote saving water in public showers, then modelling used to see if there was an increase in target behaviour.

Ebel, Koepsell, Bennett & Rivara (2003)

Community campaign to increase observed booster seat use in vehicles
4 campaign communities, 8 control communities
Results: change in booster seat use % is much higher for campaign communities compared to control communities.

Design Strategy

The designing or engineering of environments, decided, or machinery to facilitate the occurrence of the target behaviour

Can be more difficult to implement than other interventions.

May not be as effective for long-term behaviour change once the novelty wears off.

Allpress & Leland (2010)

Used evenly spaced or decreasingly spaced road cones to reduce traffic speed at an open-road roadwork site.

Results: both interventions were successful at decreasing speed through road-work sites, with the uneven cones being more effective than the even cones.

"Drivers not speeding last week ___% Best record __%" Speed readings taken at 4 different distances from the sign Baseline and intervention conditions repeated (ABAB)

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Results: Feedback sign was effects at reducing speeding on the highway. Effects of sign persisted up to 6km after the sign.

Research has generally focused on financial incentives
Coupons, entries into a lottery, cash payments, marketing merchandise, free bus tickets Can be used alone or in conjunction with other strategies
May undermine intrinsic motivations to perform the target behaviour

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Incentives

Rewards offered to people for undertaking an activity (that they would have otherwise not done) or to encourage then to undertake in that activity more frequently.

Foxx & Schaeffer (1981)

Company based lottery to reduce personal driving of employees
Control and experimental groups
4 weekly lottery draws for those in the experimental groups (reduced mileage by 10-30%) ABA reversal design
Results: Lottery was effect ay decreasing mean daily mileage for those in the experimental group, baseline 2 they exceeded initial baseline

Case Study:

Electricity savings in residential halls- Bekker et al. (2010)

Social issue:
Excessive electricity use in residential halls, no incentive as amount paid for accommodation is not relative to usage.
Financial repercussions for halls - small response cost un saving electricity

Interventions in past research: Incentives
Education
Feedback

Prompts

Participants and setting:
Control hall - 326 residents 18-20 years Intervention hall - 190 residents

Design:
Control group design
3 weeks preceding baseline (control hall)
3 week intervention (combination of feedback, incentives, education)
IV: assignment of control condition or intervention condition
DV: amount of electricity used each day and night, recorded using meters in each college Interobserver agreement: two meter readers conducted simultaneous readings on 57% of control and 48% of intervention readings. 100% agreement (within 2kWh of each other)

Procedure:
baseline phase: daily electricity readings taken at both halls
Intervention phase; 9 large posters drawing attention to thermometer and stated there were rewards for savings. 89 smaller posters with power saving tips.

o Electricity savings thermometer drawn on whiteboard. Incentives ranged from free coffee for a week, movie night, ice cream and pizza party

o Savings updated daily

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Results:
Intervention savings: 16.2% day and 10.7% night; $251.31 savings in 3 weks
Control savings: 3.8% day and 6.53% night
Social validity questionnaire: 74% said they will continue to save electricity in the absence of rewards. 89% said the scheme should continue.

Cost/benefit analysis:
Benefit= $1344.30 per year
Cost: $261.27
$1344.30 -$261.27 = $1128.03
Split between rewarding residents and hall budget savings = 1128.03/ 2=564.02 net savings Estimated $5.22 net return for every $1 spent on the intervention
Additional unmeasured intervention benefits:

o Reduction of carbon emissions and environmental impact o Reducedapplicationuse
o Globalscale
o Socialbenefits

o Ongoing benefits for residents who can use saving tips later on

Identify a behaviour that is related to a relevant issue

o Socialvalidityquestionnaireatendofthethreeweeks.

Defining a target behaviour

Behaviour can be defined in terms of its:
Form: the topography of the response
Function: the effect of the behaviour on the environment

Topography based definitions:

” The meaning of any behaviour is determined by its function

Behaviours shoyld not be targted for change based on topography alone

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Limitations
Relatively short baseline and intervention- may not continue over longer period Did not include heating or hot water use

Summary: study demonstrated that a combination of visual prompts, feedback and incentives was effective in reducing electricity use in a residential college.

Lecture 4: ABA Principles 1

Identify a research question

"A brief but specific statement of what the researcher wants to learn from conducting the experiment"

An intervention that may be effective in changing this behaviour Components of ABA experiments

At least one participant
At least one behaviour
At least one setting
A system for measuring the behaviour At least one intervention Manipulation of independent variable

the physical form or shape of a behaviour, the

measurable and malleable dimension of behaviour

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Functional definitions: They should be used because...
They include all instances of a response class
The outcome of behaviour is the most important
Functional definitions are often simpler and more concise than form based definitions.

Writing good definitions: Objective
Clear
Complete

Observing behaviour

Different ways to observe behaviour:
Direct observation: measuring the behaviour directly

o E.g.countingpeoplecrossingtheroad
Indirect observation: measuring the products of behaviour

Repeatability - rate the behaviour occurs
Temporal extent - how long a behaviour goes on for Temporal locus - when the behaviour occurs in time

Experimental design commonly used in ABA interventions:

Single subject designs

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o E.g.measuringrubbishthrowingbehaviourbyamountofrubbishinbinatendofday Behaviours can also be measured by their:

Experimental design

Quasi-Experimental designs:

Experimental designs that don’t meet the criteria of random selection and random allocation. Instead,

Random selection is substituted by selecting a representative group that you want to generalise.
Random allocation is substituted by replication

Within subject design
Each subject is measured in multiple conditions Subjects act as their own control
Primarily uses graphical analysis - stats possible Doesn’t mean there is only one subject Baseline

o FirstpartofanABAexperimentinvolvescollectingbaselinedata o Measure of baseline behaviour with no intervention
o Shouldbestablebeforeintroducingintervention

AB design
Simplest design that involves one baseline condition and one intervention condition Never adequate because its not replicated
often used in government agencies and advertsing

ABA Withdrawal design
Includes a return to baseline condition (ABA) Better than AB but still inadequate

o Intervention is not replicated
o Where the intervention is successful in increase the quality of life of people involved,

ending the study by withdrawing the intervention is unethical. Reversal design

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Involves replications of both baseline and intervention conditions (ABAB design)
Inclusion of second intervention strengthens in evidence for the functional relation between the intervention and the behaviour - cant be used when a new skill has been learned Engerman, Austin and Bailey (1997)

o Used an ABAB design to assess the effects of a personal prompt on safely belt usage by grocery store patrons

Repeated reversal (ABABABAB...) and BAB designs
Multiple treatment reversal design: ABAC; ABACAD... etc
Multi-element baseline design - Multi-probe design: A and B phases applied randomly and alternate frequency: ABABBABABAAB

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Alternating treatment design
Involves the rapid alternation if two or more distinct treatments
Often does not involve a baseline condition
Based on principle of stimulus discrimination - the differing interventions act as discriminative stimuli for different behaviours
Advantages:

Multiple baseline design
The most widely used experimental design for evaluating treatment effects in ABA
Allows the replication of an intervention across a number of settings, behaviours or people Three basic types:

o Doesn’tnotrequireinterventionwithdrawal
o Reduces possible sequence effects
o Can be used to measure behaviour where the effects of the intervention may not be

reversible
o Can be used with data that do not show a stable trend.

Disadvantages:
o Canonlybeusedwitha.smallnumberofinterventions
o The interventions must be very different from one another (to avoid multiple

treatment interference)
o The rapid alternation of interventions is not typical of the natural environment

Van Houten, Malenfant, Zhao, Ko and Van Houten (2005)

o Evaluated the effect of "Changeable message signs that functioned as freeway guide signs to divert traffic to universal theme park via one of two exits based on traffic congestion" on the number of crashes that happened in close proximity to the exit.

o Alternating treatments were the two locations of the changeable message signs - the world universal was shown at only one sign at a time.

o Results: the signs were effective at diverting traffic to the signalled exit but resulted in an increase in the number of accidents. The second experiment addressed this by changing the way the signs were phased from one exit to another.

o Multiple baseline across behaviours: this consists of two or more target behaviours for the same people

o Multiple baseline across settings: this consists of the same target behaviour and the same people but across two or more settings

o Multiple baseline across subjects or groups: this consists of the same target behaviour, but for two or more people (or groups of people)

The multiple baseline design does not show functional control by the independent variable through reversal
Two major advantages over reversal design

o Can be used where removing the intervention is unethical
o Canbeusedwhereremovingtheeffectoftheinterventionisntpossible.

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Control Group design
Between subject design
Involves an intervention and a control group to provide a no intervention comparison Participants are randomly assigned to groups
Each participant experiences one condition only
Use statistical analysis to compare the behaviour of the groups

Cost/benefit analysis

In a cost benefit analysis we are concerned with the cost of the interventions (not the cost of the experiment to test the intervention)
Costs can be spread across a longer period of time than just the intervention period
Costs:

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More often expressed in monetary terms
Not always... time and effort required for the intervention, food deprivation and suffering (dieting costs)

Benefits:
Often not expressed in monetary terms
Example - the benefits of dieting intervention cold include kg lost etc.

Cost/benefit ration:
COST/BENEFIT = unit cost (the cost per benefit)
The term cost effectiveness refers to a comparison of cost/benefit ratios for different interventions

Lecture 5: ABA Principles 2

Inter-observer reliability

"The Degree to which two or more independent observers report the same observed values after measuring the same event"

Why do we need it?

1. To identify whether new observers have been appropriately trained

2. To identify observer drift

3. Consistently good agreement suggests behaviour definitions were clear

4. Where there are multiple observers, high agreement suggests that variation in the data is
   not due to which observers were present. Requirements for measuring:

5. He observers must use the same measuring system

6. The observers must measure the same events

7. The observers must be independent
   Observation methods: Event recording
   Involved recording the number of times the behaviour occurs With two observers the data collection may look like this:

General pointers
o Observation times need to be notes

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o Best if observers durations are constant across the observation days o To calculate rate/frequency, use standard units of time
o Counting works best for1 but not discrete trail behaviours

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Inter-observer reliability for event recording
Usesa formula based on percentage agreement (80-90% or above is generally considered acceptable)
To use percentage agreement, the smaller count must be on the top line of the equation.

Two steps:

1. Use the percentage agreement formula for event recording, but calculate reliability for each
   interval

2. Work out the mean reliability across the intervals to give an overall measure of inter-
   observer reliability for the whole observation period
   Event recordings with dichotomous data
   If we have dichotomous (Yes/No) data
   Are observing each instance of the behaviour
   And both observers are looking at the same thing at the same time Then we can use cohens kappa co-efficient (K) to measure IOR

Observing method: Event recording within an interval
Divide the observation period into equal intervals
Collect a tally of occurrences within each interval
Increases the likelihood that high agreement is due to measuring the same events in the same way

Three main ways:
1. Whole interval recording

Kappa is a more stringent measure of reliability than those based on percentage agreement as it corrects for agreements that occur due to change

Calculating Kappa: On lecture slides

Observing method: time sampling
Observation periods are broken into equal intervals - how long the intervals are depends on the method used, and the behaviour being observed
Observations involve recording: whether a behaviour occurred during each interval or whether a behaviour occurred at specific moments in time

Yes/No the behaviour occurred for the whole interval 2. Partial interval recording

Yes/No the behaviour occurred at some point in the interval 3. Momentary time sampling

Yes/No the behaviour was occurring precisely at the end of each interval

IOR for time sampling methods
Percentage agreement on occurrent - the percentage of intervals/moments that both observers agree the behaviour occurred

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Percentage agreement on non-occurrence- the percentage of intervals/moments that both observers agree the behaviour did not occur

o Agreeing on non-occurrences is important when sampling a behaviour that occurs at a high frequency

o

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1. 2. 3.

Indirect measures
Need to decide prior to observations what counts as an agreement or disagreement

Social validity

Also
"requires consumer acceptability of the behaviour-change techniques and a system for assuring ongoing application of the intervention program"
Wolf (1978) suggests that social validity should be assessed by:

The social significance of the goals The appropriateness of the procedure The social importance of the results.

"That the problem addressed by an intervention program was important from a societal perspective, and the intervention itself did not have undesirable side effects"

Validating the social significance of the goals Begins with a clear description of goals
Can determine the social validity of goals by

o Assessing performance of people considered to be competent

o Changing different levels of performance and seeing which produces optimal results Look to also se whether goals are actually shared by the people in the setting and by society

Validating the appropriateness of the procedure
Are the interventions likely to be acceptable to the participants and consumers Several scales and questionnaires have been developed to evaluate this
Include factors such as effort required, time, discomfort to participants, ethical issues

Validating the social importance of the results
Will I be able to produce results that will satisfy the consumer Methods include:

o Normativesamplecomparison o Consumeropinions
o Expertevaluation
o Standardisedtests

o Realworldtests

Response effort

Changing the amount of effort required can change behaviour
Increasing the effort required to complete a behaviour can result in reductions of behaviour that are similar to punishment

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Can be particularly useful technique in applied situations

Van Houten et al (2011)

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Used accelerator pedal force to increase seat belt use in commercial drivers Seat belt compliance increased to 100% within the intervention

We can also decrease the amount of effort required

Leads to an increased frequency of behaviour
E.g. providing parking passes to increase the number of people attending healthcare appointments

Response cost

A behavioural technique used to decrease undesirable behaviour
Involved the withdrawal of a reinforcer when the behaviour occurs
Usually in the form of fines, penalties or loss of privileges
Often used to modify problematic behaviour in classrooms, but can also be used in larger scales

Mottram et al (2002)

Three students with ODD

Reponses cost were used to reduce disruptive classroom behaviour

McSweeny (1978)

Implementation of a 20c charge to phone users who used a local directory service

Lecture 6: ABA and Social Traps

Behaviour and Consequences
Any one behaviour can results in more than one consequence

Immediate vs delayed consequence
Missing out on having fun with friends- better performance in exams Having fun with friends - worse exam performance

A behavioural model of self control

Self control: choosing the behaviour that leads to a larger later (LL) reinforcer over a behaviour that leads to a smaller, sooner (SS) reinforcer
Impulsivity: choosing the behaviour that leads to a smaller, sooner (SS) reinforcer over a behaviour that leads to a larger, later (LL) reinforcer

The value of a reinforcer changes depending on Magnitude
Delay

Preference reversal:
When someone switched from the LL reinforcer to the SS reinforcer

If you are far away from both choices it is easier to take the larger one and be self controlled When you are close to the ss reward you are more likely to be impulsive

Social traps

Occurs when there is conflict between a short term consequence and a long term consequence
Trapper by the effects of a more immediate reinforcer which leads to a long term punisher Talking about situation where SS reinforcer or STC occurs- leading to a LTC

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Also occurs when there is a conflict between a short term consequence and a long term consequence
Behaviour is blocked by the effects of a more immediate punisher when though there would be a more long term reinforcer

Behaviour is being blocked by effects of more immediate punisher - influencing our behaviour to the point where we don’t do the behaviour. Even thought it would leave to a LT reinforcer.

Social fences

Types of social traps:

One person traps
Preference reversal of reinforcer after a time delay

o Can also be applied in group situations - over population The missing Hero

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o Smokingexample-funinthemoment,badhealthconsequences
Ignorance in situations where we don't know about the LT consequence
Sliding reinforcers that begin with positive outcomes, but slide towards progressively more negative outcomes each time the behaviour is repeated

o Drugaddition

Where a negative personal consequence prevents someone from behaving in a way that would be beneficial for the whole group

o Mattress problem on highway- all cars behind wait to go into other lanes so they can go around, causing a traffic jam. Often no one will stop to move it.

Negative cost for one person, acting out of own self interest, not your responsibility, bystander effect

1. 2. 3.

4.

The tragedy of the commons
When a more immediate reinforcer for an individual leads to a LT collective punisher for the group
Many current environmental issues can be viewed as a tragedy of the commons

o Examples - fishing grounds, Oceans, atmosphere, cars o Prisonerdilemma-

Six ways to prevent or get out of social traps - Platt (1973)

Change the delay
o Bring the delayed consequence closer in time to the short term consequence

Add counter-reinforcers
o Counter the immediate reinforcers/punishers with other punishers or reinforcers

Change the nature of LT consequences
o Canbedonethroughnewinterventions
o E.g. intervention of antibiotics for STDS and birth control for unplanned pregnancies

has change the likelihood of these LT consequences Add reinforcers for competing behaviours

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5.

6.

1.

o Reinforce competing behaviours that do not lead to negative long-term consequences

Get outside help in changing the reinforcers
o For many personal social traps, it is hard to change your own "locked in" behaviours;

an outside party can be used to change our pattern Set up a super-ordinate authority

o Super-ordinate authorities can allocate resources and mediate conflicts
Nested traps: often, situations are far more complex than a single trap. They may involve traps

nested within one another

The tragedy of the commons and environmental protection:

Vam Vugt (2009) also suggested four ways to protect the environment: Information

o Environmental uncertainty tends to promote overuse because most users are optimistic about the future and underestimate the damage they are doing to the environment.

o Need to provide reliable and accurate information about the use and availability of resources

o People need information abut the effects of their individual behaviour
o Information often provides the basis of many education and awareness intervention

strategies
o Information prevents social traps that result from ignorance

Identity
o People identify the most with their friends and family, so appeals that target these

groups will be more persuasive
o People are more likely to share information with the communities they are part of o People who identify with a social group care about their in-group reputation, and

this promotes pro-environmental action Institutions

o Local and global environmental resources are often governed by authorities- trust in these authorities is important

o Encouragetrustininstitutions Incentives

o Individual incentives play the largest role in changing behaviour
o Cautions: incentives may not work for people who are already motivated, incentives

may undermine trust in authorities

Lecture 7: ABA and Health

Community Reinforcement approach (CRA) to treating substance disorders

A behavioural treatment package for treating substance-abuse problems
"CRA helps people rearrange their lifestyles so that healthy, drug-free living becomes rewarding and thereby competes with alcohol and drug use"
Variants - CRAFT (community reinforcement and family training), A-CRA (adolescent CRA), CRA plus contingency management
Two main goals:

Elimination of positive reinforcement for drinking Enhancements of positive reinforcement for sobriety

Combination of treatment strategies used:

2.

3.

4.

1. 2.

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CRA functional analysis of relapse 8. Relationship counselling

Variations: CRAFT
Involves concerned significant others so they can help the identified patients
Teach CSOs how to modify their environments to reward behaviours that promote sobriety and to withhold rewards when the IP is drinking/using drugs

Variations: A-CRA
Modified CRA with more age-appropriate materials, and the inclusion of an anger management procedure

Variations: CRA plus contingency management
CRA procedure, plus vouchers for drug-free samples Does it work? Hunt and Azir (1973)

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1. Functional analysis of substance use
o Explore antecedents and consequences (Positive and negative) of the clients

substance use

1. Sobriety sampling
   o Sampleatimelimitedperiodofabstinencefromdrinking-dryjuly

2. CRA treatment plan

o Begins with the happiness scale- highlights that all aspects of the clients life are important

4. Behavioural skills training
o Use instruction and role play with feedback to teach three basic skills

Problem solving Communication skills Drink/drug refusal training

5. Job skill training
o Provide basic steps for obtaining and keeping a valued job

6. Social and recreational counselling
o Provide opportunities to try new social and recreational activities

7. Relapse prevention
o Teach clients how to identify high risk situations and to anticipate and cope with a

relapse
o Relapsepreventiontechniques

o Improvetheinteractionbetweentheclientandtheirpartner

Earning warning monitoring system

comparison to control group
Several reviews and meta analysis Support the conclusion that CRA is highly effective when compared with other alcohol treatment programmes.

o 8 inpatients in CRA condition; 8 control (standard AA programme)
o CRA pat8ienst taught to identify and access non-drinking reinforcers; received job

skill training and recreational counselling. Married couples received relationship

counselling.
o Reinforcement group lowered percentages for all conditions
o Extension of this study, participants were encouraged to take disulfiram included

compliance program, rewards for taking disulfiram, eary warning system , buddy systems

Drinking, unemployment and hospitalisation decreased for CRA group in

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CRA in NZ
Salvation Army bridge programme - CRA Auckland city mission

Reducing the risk of skin cancer

Skin cancer is the most common cancer in NZ 535 deaths from skin cancer

The cost of skin cancer
Greatest cost of skin cancer is premature death
Treatment of skin cancer costs the NZ health system $57 million each yea Total cost to the economy is $123.1 million each year
Other, non economic, costs included stress and loss of quality of life.

Lombard et al. (1991) - reducing the risk of skin cancer
Examined the effect of a combination of behavioural strategies on increasing behaviours that can reduce the risk of skin cancer
Behaviours targeted: wearing a shirt, being in the shade, wearing a hat, wearing sunglasses, wearing zinc, having a bottle of sunscreen
Intervention strategies: informational posters, information fliers, daily feedback and goals, peer leading modelling, commitment raffle
Results: increase in intervention stages in lifeguards, less of an increase in children but still an increase, increase in adults (not as much as lifeguards)

Interventions to promote smoking reduction and abstinence

Smoking in NZ
Smoking rates in NZ continue to reduce with 13% of adults smoking daily

Jarvis and Dallery (2017) - using deposit contracts to reduce smoking
Contingency management- earn monetary vouchers for evidence of smoking reduction or abstinence

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o AcceptableandeffectforSTabstinence

o Highcostsofintervention
Deposit contracts- individuals contribute their own money, which they get back by meeting abstinence goals.
Signed a behavioural contract - pledge to quit smoking, acknowledgement of deposit contract arrangements
Deposit contracts made using paypal
28 goals for each participants
Samples taken with a CO meter and web camera
Design: Multiple baseline across participants
Results: successful, reduction of smoking habits

Lecture 8: ABA and Disabilities

Terminology

Diagnostic terms Intellectual handicap Intellectual disability Mental handicap Learning disability

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Person first vs Identity first
E.g. children with autism vs there are some autistic children

IQ vs behaviour
Deficits (adaptive behaviour) Excesses
Defined for individuals not diagnosis

Society we work under medical model
Disability sector the social model of disability says that a person is disabled not due to a diagnoses but because we as a society haven't adapted.

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Person centred vs medical models

Deficits in intellectual functioning confirmed by clinical assessments and standardised intelligence testing
Deficits in adaptive functioning including conceptual domain, social domain, practical domain

o For example; deficits in self care, communication, home living, social skills, use of community resources, self direction, functional academics, work, leisure, health, safety.

Onset in developmental years

Intellectual disabilities

Diagnostic criteria

Prevalence for ID
Depending on the diagnostic criteria used prevalence between 0.3%- 2.5%
About 50% of MR population are mild MR (higher in children, some suggest between 75- 90%)
Male: female approx. 1:6:1

Don’t make assumption based on appearance - ID from variety of reasons Physical disability is not a ID

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Mental health is not a ID
Prenatal babies do not always have ID
Autism may or may not have a ID associated with it

Deinstitutionalisation
Process started in 90s, last institutions closed in 2010.
Moved people into community to enable a good life. Support people with ID to live a full life.

ABA and ID

Teaching people with profound ID to make choices - Gee et al

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Helping a person with mild intellectual disabilities learn to control their anger

Female with a mild ID.
Lived in a home with 4 other people

5 years, prior to this she was at home with family
When she was denied something, lead to behavioural outburst.

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Escalate to slamming doors, swearing, punching walls or hitting staff that support her. Functional assessmnet
Y axis - latency to challenging behaviour - how long from time we denied something did it take for her to react and get angru.
X axis - sessions - flip between test (deny access) and control condition ( never deny anything)

Intervention: taught coping strategies when staff said no

Coping strategy- people can say no and that’s okay. Tolerate when we say no
"I was just asking" - taught her to say this.
Slowly increase denials.

When motivator was high she would aggressively say I was just asking o Didn’t care as long as she tolrated it.

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Multiple baseline
Teaching initial tolerance
Opportunities and other strategies where she would release anger. Provide her with an outlet

This intervention was highly effective and helped her gain control of her emotions when being denied something
Was okay to be annoyed- gave her tools to programme it in

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ASD

What is it? 1940s

o Autism was first described by Dr Leo kanner in 1943
o Asperger's disorder- Hans Asperger's observed similar symptoms with no language

or adaptive skill deficit (autistic behaviours without developmental delay0 DSM (1994)

o Persuasivedevelopmentaldisorder(categoryofdisorders)

Autism, Asperger's disorder, childhood disintegrative disorder, PDDNOS, Rett disorder (degenerative neurological condition)

DMS V (2013)
o Autism spectrum disorder (includes the previous four PDDs) o No longer includes Rett Disorder
o Mild,moderate,severe

ASD prevalence
Autism: 2 to >60/10,000- larger male to female ratio

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Causes of Autism Neurological Genertics

Comprehensive early intervention behavioural intervention (EIBI) Address the core deficits that define autism

ABA and ASD

o Social communication designed to help the child
o Socialinteractionthatareimportantforthechild
o Restricted/repetitive patterns of behaviour, interetss or activities that are

problematic for the child
Must also address other excesses and deficits observed

o SIBandotherbehaviourexcesses o Attentiondeficits
o Eatingproblems
o Motordevelopment

o Selfhelpskills
o Teaches the child how to learn

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o Genetics involved
o Genderdifferences
o Gender studies - 20-30 genes that are linked to autism o Familiarity-otherneurodiversityinthefamily

Gene/enviornmnet
o Likely there is a gene/environment interaction
o Epigenetics
o Exposurepostnatally
o Identify cause so we can then eradicate it- may be worse off with removing it.

Neurodivergence can lead to great outcomes and they can do things others cant.

The evidence
Many outcome studies have demonstrated that EIBI may facilitate clinically and socially valid gains in intellectual, social, emotional and adaptive functioning in preschool aged children with autism

o Increasedcognitiveabilities
o Increasedlanguagedevelopment o Increasedpeerinteractions
o Decreaseinbehaviouraldifficulties o Increasedadaptivefunctioning

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Variability in findings
o Child characteristics - severity of autism or ID o Qualityandquantityofintervention

EIBI in NZ Not funded

Overcoming a phobia of water study

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Treatment Shaping

o Reinforcing successive approximations to the terminal behaviour o Reinforcement = access to a shoelace

Baseline - interested in getting in
Circles are at the start of session
Triangles are where we got to after session
Open triangles - other staff doing it- at the start he didn’t trust the other staff End if sessions he was able to get into the pool and out by himself.

Learning to take medication

Treatment
Stimulus fading and differential reinforcement Reinforcer 1: preferred drink
Reinforcer 2: preferred activity

Results:
By the end the participant was able to take a range of medication at a range of different places.

Examples of treatments for ASD which currently have little/no evidence

Various diets
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy
Sensory integration therapy Relationship development intervention Chelation
Facilitated communication
Dolphin theory

Lecture 9: ABA in Business

Two themes:

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1. How to increase workplace productivity

2. How to influence consumer behaviour
   How to increase workplace productivity
   Organisational behaviour management (OBM)

1. Performance management

The application of ABA to workplace environments Journal of organisational behaviour management

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o Management of individuals or groups of employees through the application of behavioural principles

o Looks at antecedents and consequences maintaining behaviours
o Interventions put in place to decrease unproductive or increase productive

performance
2. Behavioural systems analysis

o Outlines how components of the system interact, including how each individual contributes to overall system functioning

o Looks beyond the basic three-term contingency (ABCs) to identify variables impacting the performance if individuals and organisations

3. Behaviour-based safety
o Analysis and alternation of work environments to reduce injuries and promote safe

behaviour

Performance management:

Business is behaviour
Success in business is defined by an organisations ability to produce results
All organisational results are the product of behaviour. Every result is produced by someone doing something. If you want to improve results you must first get employees to change what they're doing.
To change results, you must change behaviour

1. Define target behaviour

2. Evaluate what level of that behaviour is at baseline

3. Come up with an intervention and put it in place

4. Evaluate to see what the effectiveness f that intervention was.
   ABC model of PM
   The PIC/NIC analysis

"the technology for creating a workplace that brings out the best people while generating the highest value for the organisation"

Consequences vary along three dimensions Positive or Negative (P/N)
Immediate or Future (I/F)

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1. Positive reinforcement - something you want - Increase behaviour

2. Negative reinforcement - escape or avoid something you don’t want - increase behaviour

3. Punishment - get something you don’t want - decrease behaviour

4. Penalty - lose something you have - decrease behaviour
   Increasing performance:
   Positive reinforcement
   Nearly always the most effective strategy for increasing performance

5. Positive reinforcement has positive side effects

6. Most performance problems are motivational

7. People seek positive reinforcers

8. Positive reinforcement creates a positive climate for positive accountability

9. Committing to use positive reinforcement is a values-based decision
   Negative reinforcement
   Increases behaviour because people want to escape or avoid a negative consequence However a person only does enough to keep the consequence from happening
   Can be used to get behaviour started but positive reinforcement should be used to improve performance.
   Discretionary effort

Certain or Uncertain (C/U)
Relative effects of PIC/NIC consequences

Four types of consequences

1. Ask people what they like
o Use the thing people like or surrounding the ideas of what people like as effective

reinforcers to increase performance in workplace. 2. Observing people (use Premack Principle)

Gap between positive and negative is called discretionary effort

Finding effective reinforcers

3. Trial and error

Watch what people do when they are given a choice
Highly preferred behaviours can be used as reinforcers for lesser perfected behaviours

Characteristics of effective reinforcers

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Controllable-Things that are under our control
Available - readily available
Repeatable- can use again and again
Efficient - cost of reinforcer will not exceed value of accomplishment

Examples of reinforcers
Social - verbal praise, letters from management etc Work-related - promotions, work as team leader Tangibles- vouchers, longer breaks.

Decreasing behaviour

Punishments and Penalties

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Any consequence that results In a decrease in the probability of that behaviour occurring again

o Punishment:addinginsomethingaversive

o Penalty:takingsomethinggoodaway
Only stops behaviour temporarily
Need to replace stopped behaviour with more approproate behaviour

Negative side effects of punishment
Escape and avoidance behaviour
May decrease desired as well as undesired performance Punishers and penalties rarely increase performance Punishment increases aggression
Difficult to use effectively
Spontaneous recovery

Effectiveness of PM?

Validated against measurable results in a wide variety of applications. Firms using PM have reported returns on investment ranging from $:1 to 60:1 in their first year.
69% average improvement in PM applications
Many examples showing that workplace performance has increased with reinforcement, feedback and measurement.- interventions in place increases performance significantly in all studies shown.

Evidence on whether PM interventions are long lasting is mixed
o The environment experiences constant change
o PM intervention participants change, reinforcers may change etc.

How to influence consumer behaviour

Interventions used to increase consumer behaviour in coffee shop - video example Provided food and coffee
Changed design
Comfy couch

Influencing consumer behaviour
As well as increasing productivity of employees, ABA can be used to increase profitability by changing customer behaviour

Case studies

Increasing the use of ATMS Increasing Spending in restaurants

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The credit card effect

Increasing use of ATMS

McNally and Aberathy (1989)

Examined the effect of monetary incentives on: Increasing the number of cards being used in ATMs Increasing the rate of use of each card

Provided monetary reinforcers ($5 or $100) on intermittent reinforcement schedules

Four phases:

1. Baseline

2. Cash payoffs - interactive game provided reinforcers on Schedule A or B. Promotion
   advertised

3. Limited play: schedule C. No advertsing

4. Baseline
   Results: Limited play started high and slowly decreased, last baseline phase has a slight increase in comparison to initial baseline phase. Stable over 6 years.
   Increasing spending in a restaurant
   North, Shilcock and Hargreaves (2003)
   Examined the effect of muscial style on spending by customers in a restaurant 3 conditions - Pop music, classical music, no music
   Over the 3 weeks, the types of music was counter balanced across the days of the week Results: Spent more money when classical music was played in the restaurants

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Suggested that the classical music led to the restaurant because perceived as more upmarket than when pop or no music was played
Environmental design, reinforcers for entering the environment
Associative learning - associate classical music with being fancy.

The Credit Card effect

Feinberg (1986)

Participates presented with booklets of consumer items and asked how muhc they would be willinh to spend
Mastercard symbol was presented on the table for half the participants
Results: Those in the credit card present condition placed consistently higher values than those in the credit card absent condition.

The credit card effect is a phenomenon where people spend more money when a credit card symbol is present
Spending facilitating stimuli
Relation to associative learning?

Lie Et al. (2010)

Tried to replicate Feinbergs findings in NZ
Participants either has a paper catalogue or online catalogue with 12 consumer items Asked how much they are willing to spend
CC present and absent conditions
Results showed no effect

Lecture 10: ABA in the Classroom

Teachers experiences

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Teachers often report high levels of stress compared to other professions Student misbehaviour is a commonly reported source of stress
Classroom management techniques are not taught well during teacher training

Behavioural interventions in educational settings

Hasazi and Hasazi (1972)

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Early 1960s - behaviour modification techniques started being used in classrooms
Board certified behavioural analysis/behavioural psychologists/resource teachers: learning and behaviour work in classrooms often to modify the behaviour of individuals
Can work on both reducing problem behaviours and improving academic performance

8 year old boy- difficulty with reversing digits when adding numbers
Observations: bob could discriminate between reverse ordered numbers, could point out reversal when his teachers didn’t notice, would rub out correct responses and replace with reversed numbers
Interventions: teacher ignored all reversals, socially reinforced all correct Reponses with praise
Results: number of digit reversal dramatically decreased during intervention phases Showed that digit reversal behaviour was under the control of teacher attention

Haskett and Lenfestey (1974)

8 children , 3-5 years old "open classroom setting"
Reading competes with other activities
Intervention: introduced novel books to the classrooms, adults modelled reading behaviour Introduction of new books increased reading related behaviours for some children Modelling was more effective
Variability within and across participants

Donaldson and Vollmer (2011)

Removing an individual from the reinforcing environment to an austere environment to decrease the future probability of problematic behaviour.
Fixed duration TO: person remains in TO for a fixed amount of time Release-contingency TO- person remains in time out until no problem behaviour has occurred for a specific amount of time

4 children (3-4yo) with problemed behaviours
ABAB reversal design with alternting treatmnet designed used in intervention phases. Results: both forms if TO were effective at reducing the problem across all participants

Premack Principle
High probability behaviours can act as reinforcers for low probability behaviours Homme, deBaca, Devine, Steinhorst and Rickert (1963)

3 year olds in a nursery classroom
Low probability behaviour = sitting quietly
High probability behaviour= running and screaming
Sitting quietly was reinforced by running and screaming - results showed that with this procedure control was perfect after a few days.

The good behaviour game

Barrish, Saunders and Wolf (1969)

First published study on the good behaviour game

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Participants - 24 fourth graders in a classroom with general behaviour management problems
Target behaviour: out of seat behaviour and talking out behaviour
Class divided into 2 teams

Rules explained, description no out of seat behaviour or talking out behaviour Whenever someon in the team broke a rule a mark was given to the team Special previeges for the team with fewest marks
Reversal multiple baseline deisgn

Results: THeGBG reliably decreased talking out and out of seat behaviours across both math and reading periods

Variations
Astronaut game (Robertshaw and Hiebert(1973))

Participnats 24 first graders - attention to task behaviour, inattentive behaviour, worksheets completed
4 teams- earn tokens for good behaviour
Results: decreased inattentive behaviour, increased attentive behaviour and increased worksheet completion

GBG- target behaviours

GBG reinforcers

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GBG long term effects

Kellam et al

GBG played in 1st and 2nd grade classrooms
Followed up at 6th grade: males in GBG classrooms with initially high levels of disruptive and aggressive behaviour has significnatlt reduced these compared to those in control classrooms
Females were less affected by this

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1. Decide when to schedule the game

2. Clearly define the negative behaviours scored during the game

3. Decide on suitable rewards for winning teams

4. Introduce game to class

5. Put game into effect
   Final example: token reinforcement system

Children earn tokens for desired behaviours
Can exhcnage tokens for back up reinforcers after a certain number of obtained tkens

Rule governed behaviour
Differential reinforcement of low rates of behaviour
Points act as a discriminative stimulus and a conditioned reinforcer/punisher Increase access to social reinforcers

Criticisms of the GBG

Biggest effect size for males
May not generalise to ither settings
What to do with students who refused to play the game Traditional GBG targets inappropriate behaviours

Tips for GBG implementation

Research with token reinforcement systems

Decreases in disruptive behaviour Increases in study behaviour Increases in academic achievement

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GNG- potential mechanism

Trouble with rewards (Balsam and Bondy 1983)

Elicited or emotional effects Suppression of target behaviour Approaching the reinforcing agents Operant effects

Generalisation and discrimination Response induction
Transient effects
Imitation

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Participants: competitive swimmers aged 9-16

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Lecture 11: ABA, Sport and Exercise

PART A: ABA and Sport

Behavioural sport psychology

Four charactertics:

1. Involves identifying target behaviours of athletes and/or coaches to be improved, defining
   those behaviours in a way so that they can be reliably measured, and using changed in the behavioural measure as the best indicator of the extent to which the recipient of an intervention is being helped.

2. Interventions rely on principles and procedures from respondent and operant conditioning

3. ABA sports research relies on single subject experimemtal methods to evaluate intervention
   effectivenmess

4. Social validation assessment looks at whether the goals, procedures and results of the
   intevrentions are values by the recicipents

"The use of behaviour analysis principles and techniques to enchance the perfromance and satisfaction of athletes and otehrs associated with sports"

Cognition
ABA principles that apply to overt behaviours are also applicable to covert behaviours An athletes thought and attitudes can infleunce sports performance
ABA sports intevrentions can include goal setting, imagery trainingf and self talk

Behavioural functions of self talk
As a conditioned stimulus
As a cue for attending or focusing on certain stimuli
As descriminative stimuli to prompt particular body positions for motor skills As conditioned reinforcer for desireable actions

Distinction between skill and performance
Skill based interventions teach new skills or skills yet to be mastered
Performance vased interventions improve and perfect performance of acquired skills

Intervention examples

1. Public posting and monitoring

2. Goal setting and rewards

3. Behavioural skills training

4. Mental imagery
   Public posting and monitoring
   McKenzie and Rushall (1974)

Target behaviours: attendance at practice (experiment 1) and work rates (experiment 2) Experiment 1

Dependent variable: group attendance rates Intervention: attendance board
Multiple baseline design
Three phases:

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1. Had to attend practice and swim

2. Had to be on pool deck when practice started

3. Present when practice started and remain until finished

Dependent variable: average number of laps per minute
Intervention: program board
ABAB reversal design
Results: an average 27.1% increase from baseline to intervention conditions

Goal setting and rewards

Wolko, Hrycaiko and Martin (1993)

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Results: number of absentees, ;late arrived and early departures were all reduced by

attendance boards Experiment 2

Participants: 5 competitve gymnastcs, 10-13 years old Target behaviour: balance beam skills
Dependent variable: frequency of beam skills Alternating treatments deisgn

Baseline: standard coaching
Treatment 1- standard coaching + public goal setting + rewards
Treatment 2- standard coaching + private goal setting + rewards
Results: overall, private goal setting were slightly more effective than public goal setting ( T2>T1)

Behavioural skills training

Tai and Miltenberger (2017)

Participants: 10-11 year old football players
Target behaviour: safe tackling skills
Dependent variavle: percentage of correct "safe tackling" steps
Baseline: standard tackle coaching
Intervention: behavioural skills training- instruction, modelling, rehearsal and feedback Results: increases in correct tackle steps after BST training
Social validity: BST was liked by both players and coaches

Mental imagery

Lohr and Scogin (1998)

Participants: 36 colledgiate athletes
Target behaviour: sports-specific behaviours
Dependent variable: objective performance outcomes (sports-specific)
Design: delayed training control group design
Intervention: visuo-motor behavioural rehearsal- a combination of relaxation and imagery Results: found significant improvements for those in the VMBR group compared to control group

ABA Sport research: summary

ABA methods have been used with many sports, for individuals and teams, from beginners to advanced athletes
Direct measurements of acquisitions and/or performance used
Some procedures more common than others

Interventions often integrate multiple procedures

Part B: ABA and physical activity

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New Zealand has the third highest adult obesity rate in the OECD and our rates are rising Green prescriptions: Written advice from a health professional to be active and improve your diet.

Importance of physical activity
Physical activity plays an important role against the obesity epidemic
Physical activity is correlated with many other health benefits
Movement is also important for musculoskeletal development and coordination

Physical activity Interventions: Exergaming

Fogel, Miltenberger, Graves and Koehler (2010)

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Exergaming in PE class to improve physical activity levels
Participants: for physically inactive 5th graders
Dependent variable: total minutes engaged in physical activity, total minutes of opportunity provided
Alternating treatment deisgn
Reglar class: nstrcutions, modelling, opportunity to perform with prompts and encouragemnet
Exergaming: lab set up with nine stations (11 activities) rotated every 10 minutes
Results: exergaming was effective at icnrease physical activity levels, compared to traditional PE class.

Physical activity Interventions: Activity trackers

Hayes and Van camp (2015)
Participants: 3rd graders (8 years old girls)
Target behaviour: physical activity during recess
Dependent variable: number of steps taken, measured using Fitbits
ABAB reversal design
Intervention: self monitoring, goal setting, reinforcement, feedback
Results: overall more steps were taken during intervention phases than baseline phases

Physical activity Interventions: Playground design

Ridgers, Stratton, Fairclough and Twisk (2007)

Participants: 232 boys, 238 girls (26 schools)
Target behaviour: MVPA and VPA
Dependent variables: HR and accelerometer statistics Design: control group design

Intervention: playground re-design
o Threecolourcodedareas(red:sports,blue:multi-activity,yellow:quietplay) o Physical structures (soccer goals, basketball hoops, fencing)
o Small pieces of sport equipment given to all schools

Results VPA: increase in activity in interventions compared to control groups

Physical activity Interventions: Mass media campaigns

VERB campaigns

2002-2006 mass media campains by the centres of disease contorl and prevention (CDC) Aimed to increase and maintain physical activity in 9-13 year olds
Mass media, school and community promotions, partnership with national organisations and local communities

Campaign messages: Benefits of physical activity

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1. Informational

Self efficacy

Social influences

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Huhman Et al (2005, 2007, 2008)

Evaluated the influence of the VERB campaign on children's physical activity from 2002-2006 3 cohorts (2002, 2004, 2006) of children, 9-113 years at start
Surveyed at yearly time points
Measured campaign awareness, self reported physical activity, psychosocial measures Results: show with more exposure the percentage of participants increase - more physical activity

Physical activity Interventions: Healthy lifestyle programmes

Men's healthy living and weight loss programme
12 weekly lessons
Results - show more physical activity and more weight loss for intervention groups

Lecture 12: ABA and Child Safety

Keeping kids safe is the main goal Gun safety

1 in 3 homes with children in America have guns
Every day 78 children, teens and young adults are injured or killed by guns in US.

Safety skills Recognise Avoid Escape Report

Assessment: verbal report

Researcher describes a scenario with a safety threat, then asks the child to say how they would behave
Example- personal safety questionnaire, what is situations test, what I know about touching scale

Assessment: role-play

Researcher presents the child with a scenario and asks then to act out what they would do

Assessment: in-situ

A safety threat is simulated in the natural environment The child doesn't know about the assessment
A trusted adult is not in proximity

Teaching safety skills

Two main approaches

Teacher provides information about the threat, describes and models the correct response 2. Active learning

Leaner practices the correct response to the threat, teacher provides reinforcement and corrective feedback

Teaching safety skills: informational approaches

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Hilmle, Miltenberger, Gatheridge and Flessner (2004)

1.

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Evaluated the effectiveness of the national rifle association Eddie eagle gun safety programme
Participants: 4-5 year old children
Eddie the Eagle Gun Safe Programme

o Received instructuons from a trainer, watched video, completed colouring book instructing them to "stop, don’t touch, leave the area and tell an adult"

Assessment: in-situ, role play, self report
Target behaviour: scores on 0-3 scale
Results: children verbally reported the correct behaviours but didn’t demonstrate the correct behaviours.

Beck and Miltenberger (2009)

Evaluated the effectiveness of the Safe Side "stranger safety" program on teaching abduction-prevention skills
Participants: 6 children aged 6-8.
The safe side "stranger safety" DVD (42 minutes)

"hot tops" to teach abduction safety skills to children aged 5-10 years, with instructions and modelling
Assessment: in-situ (knock on door, approach)
Target behaviour: 0-2 coding scale

Design: multiple baseline across participants
Results: Ineffective at teaching abduction prevention skills

Teaching safety skills: Active learning approaches

Behavioural skill training (BST)

Poche, Yoder and Miltenberger (1988)

Instruction Modelling Rehearsal Feedback

Evaluated different methods of teaching abduction prevention skills Participants: 74 children, 5-7 years old
Four different conditions

o Videoonly
o Videowithbehaviourrehearsal o Standardsafetyprogramme
o No training

In situ assessment
o Simulationconducted1-2daysaftertraining
o Maleapproachedinfiendlymanner
o Attempted to entice child to go home with him

Target behaviours
o Verbal response: No I have to go ask my teacher
o Motor response: run at least 20 ft towards home or school within 5 seconds

Results: video +BST condition was the most effective at teaching abduction-prevention skills.

Hilmle, Miltenberger, Gatheridge and Flessner (2004) CONTINUED

Also included two other conditions o Controlcondition
o BSTcondition

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BST was most effective out of the three types but still not good in situ

In situ training (IST)

2.

Training session in the actual contect where the skill should be performed
Takes place during in situ assessment when the child does not engage in the correct response

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Beck and Miltenberger (2009) CONTINUED

Following the failure of the Safte side stranger safety DVD, in situ training was condudtced for all participants
Parent performed the IST with the child
Results: IST implemented by a parent was effective in teaching abduction prevention skills

Dancho, Thompson and Rhoades (2008)

Evaluated the effectiveness of BST and T for children to avoid poison hazards Participants: 15 children aged 3-5
Procedure:

o Baseline
o BST:groupsafetytraining
o IST:insitufeedbackandresponseinterruption o IST:insituresponseinterruptiononly
o Treatmentextensionandfollowup

Target behaviour: not opening container, asking permission, inappropriate ingestion Results: group BST training alone was nit effective for these 3 children, additional IST with feedback and response interruption was effective

Himle, Miltenberger, Flessner and Gatheridge (2004)

Evaluated the use of BST the IST for gun safety training
Participants: 8 children aged 4-5
Target behaviour: not touching firearm, leaving the area, telling an adult Multiple baseline across participants
4 phases

Baseline
BST
IST Generalisation

Results: BST was effective for three participants and IST was successful for the rest

Increasing accessibility

Increasing accessibility: Group training

Condict groy BST training rather than individual training
Demonstrated success for abduction prevention skills and gun safety skills for some/most children
A useful first step in the classroom

Increasing accessibility: Parent-implemented training

Use parents or caregivers to teach saftey skills to their children
Example: Beck and Miltenberg (2009)
Miltenberg (2013) extended findings- control group design, both groups improved following IST; found no different between the two groups before or after training.

Increasing accessibility: Peer-implemented training

Peer tutoring to teach safety skills

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Example: Jostard, Miltenberger, Kelso and Knudson (2008)

Evaluated the use of an educational intervention programme on dog safety with children Participant: 356 children (7-8 years)
Prevent a bite programme (30 minute lesson, practice patting a dog in correct way)

Trained 6-7 year olds to teach gun safety skills to 4-6 year olds Trainers participated in BST to learn how to conduct BST and IST Successful at teaching skills to younger children

Increasing accessibility: Simulated training

1. Conduct baselin in situ assessment

2. Implement BST

3. Conduct post training in situ assessment

4. Conduct further assessment and IST if needed

5. Conduct follow up
   Chapmen et al. (2000)

The incorporation of computer simulations
Already demonstrated for teaching skills such as safe street crossing to children May be superior to video modelling as the child controls the character
Further research needed

Summary: steps to teach safety skills to children

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