Reinforcement

Positive Reinforcement Principle

  • goal: improve or increase one’s performance of a certain activity

  • how: arrange for an immediate reward after EACH correct response

  • when: use when you want to STRENGTHEN new behavior


Successive Approximations Principle

  • goal: teach one to act in a manner in which he has seldom or never before behaved

  • how: reward SUCCESSIVE steps to the final behavior   

  • when: use when you want to DEVELOP new behavior


Modeling Principle

  • goal: teach one a new way of behaving

  • how: allow one to observe a person of prestige perform the desired behavior

  • when: use when you want to DEVELOP new behavior


Cueing Principle

  • goal: teach one how to remember at a specific time

  • how: arrange for one to receive a cue for the correct performance just before the action is expected, rather than after he has performed incorrectly

  • when: use when you want to DEVELOP new behavior


Discrimination Principle

  • goal: teach one to act in a particular way under ONE set of circumstances but not another

  • how: help one to identify the cues that differentiate the circumstances and reward him ONLY when his action is appropriate to the cue

  • when: use when you want to develop new behavior


Substitution Principle

  • goal: to reinforce one with a previously ineffective reward

  • how: present the previously ineffective reward just before the time you present the more effective reward

  • when: use when you want to MAINTAIN new behavior


Intermittent Reinforcement Principle

  • goal: encourage one to continue performing an established behavior with few or no rewards

  • how: gradually and intermittently decrease the frequency with which the correct behavior is rewarded

  • when: use when you want to maintain new behavior


Satiation Principle

  • goal: stop one from acting in a particular way

  • how: you may allow one to continue performing the undesired act until he tires of it

  • when: use when you want to STOP inappropriate behavior

  • NOTE: most appropriate when undesirable behavior is not all that bad, and it does not matter very much if it continues


Extinction Principle

  • goal: stop one from acting in a particular way

  • how: arrange conditions so that one receives no rewards following the undesired act

  • when: use when you want to STOP inappropriate behavior

  • NOTE: valuable when you can arrange conditions so that one is not rewarded for the undesired behavior, and when you have major control of the rewards


The Incompatible ALternative Principle

  • goal: stop one from acting in a particular way

  • how: you may reward an alternative action that is inconsistent with or cannot be performed at the same time as the undesired act

  • when: use when you want to STOP inappropriate behavior

  • NOTE: should be used when you can devise a way to reward behavior incompatible with the undesired behavior

  • NOTE: this principle is by far the most useful and effective principle in stopping inappropriate behavior


Negative Punishment Principle

  • goal: stop one from acting in a particular way

  • how: you may arrange for one to terminate a mild aversive situation immediately by improving his behavior

  • when: use when you want to STOP an inappropriate behavior

  • NOTE: this prinicple should ONLY be used when the satiation, extinction, adn incompatible alternative principle do not work


Avoidance Principle

  • goal: teach one to avoid a certain type of situation

  • how: simultaneously present to one the situation to be avoided and some aversive condition

  • when: use when you want to modify emotional behavior


Fear Reduction Principle

  • goal: help one overcome his fear of a particular situation

  • how: gradually increase one’s exposure to the feared situation while he is otherwise comfortable, relaxed, secure, or rewarded

  • when: use when you want to modify emotional behavior