PSY 205 Exam 1 Review Session Notes

  • -Behavior is NOT a label
    • Ex, being kind is not a behavior but bringing donations to a homeless center is
  • Dead Man’s test: “not studying” isn’t a behavior because a dead man can do that

  Research design

  • AB: not a functional relationship or true research design

  • ABAB reversal: functional relationship is showed

    • Limitations: is it ethical to remove treatment after implementing it (self-injurious behavior for example)? Can you even remove the treatment (teaching a lesson plan)?

  • Changing criterion: has a baseline and treatment phase. Multiple goals; once the person reaches the goals, changes to higher or lower. True research design: shows a functional relationship when performance matches the goals

  • Multiple baseline across subjects, behaviors, or settings. 2 or more of each; treatment is staggered over time/across behaviors/across settings

  • What does a complete graph need?

  • X and Y labels

  • Numbers on X and Y

  • Data points

  • Phase line

  • Phase labels

  • IOA- Interobserver Agreement

    • Minimally accepted is 80%
    • For frequency or duration: (smaller number / larger number) x 100
    • Total agreement: (agreement intervals / total intervals) x 100
    • Looking at ALL intervals even if nothing was recorded
    • Occurrence IOA: (agreed intervals / agreed AND disagreed intervals) x 100
    • Looks at markings of agree and disagree, not recordings when there was no markings
    • Non-occurrence IOA: (agreed intervals for where behavior DIDN’T occur / agreed and disagreed intervals) x 100
    • Looks at boxes that don’t have markings over the ones that do

  Reinforcers

  • Positive: to add, provide
  • Negative: to remove, take away
  • Positive reinforcement: adding something to increase the behavior
  • Negative reinforcement: removing something to increase behavior
  • Positive punishment: provide something to decrease behavior (scolding, yelling)
  • Negative punishment: removing something to decrease the behavior (taking away phone)

  Schedules of Reinforcement

  • Fixed Ratio
    • Reinforcer is delivered after fixed number of responses
    • Post-reinforcement pause-- stopping after completing behavior to wait for reinforcement
    • Produces high rate of behavior
  • Variable ratio
    • Reinforcer is delivered after an average of a number of responses
    • Produces high rate of behavior
  • Fixed interval
    • Reinforcer is delivered for the first response after a fixed amount of time
    • Produces low rate of behavior that increases at end of the interval (in anticipation)
  • Variable interval
    • Reinforcer is delivered for the first response after an average amount of time
    • Produces a low but steady rate of behavior
  • Token economy
    • Like money, grades, clicker, etc.
    • Secondary reinforcers (that are originally meaningless) that you can earn and trade for primary reinforcers
  • Shaping: used to establish a behavior that wasn’t previously instated, or to change some dimension of a behavior
    • Through differential reinforcement of successive approximations
  • Continuous reinforcement best for obtaining a new behavior
  • Intermittent reinforcement best for maintaining a behavior
  • Karen Pryor’s 10 laws of shaping: STUDY THIS!
    • Know roughly each one
    • 1. Raise criteria in increments small enough that the subject always has a realistic chance of reinforcement
    • 2. Train one aspect of any particular behavior at a time; don’t try to shape for two criteria simultaneously
    • 3. During shaping, put the current level of response onto a variable schedule of reinforcement before adding or raising the criteria
    • A variable schedule of reinforcement means that sometimes you reinforce a behavior and sometimes you don’t, so you don’t have to constantly watch over the behavior
    • 4. When introducing a new criterion or aspect of the behavioral skill, temporarily relax the old ones
    • 5. Stay ahead of your subject
    • Plan your shaping program so that if your subject makes a sudden leap forward, you will know what to reinforce next
    • 6. Don’t change training during the shaping process
    • 7. If one shaping procedure isn’t eliciting progress, try another
    • 8. Don’t interrupt a training session or turn attention away from subject, unless this is punishment on purpose
    • 9. If a learned behavior deteriorates, review the shaping
      1. Quit while you’re ahead
    • Move steps on a high note, as soon as some progress has been made. The last behavior accomplished is the one that will be remembered the best, so it should be a good, reinforceable performance.