5018 Unit 4 Flashcards
What reinforcer effectiveness refers to
- Momentary capacity to support responses that produce it.
2. Utility in producing long-term behavior change.
Operations that alter the prolonged value of a stimulus
Repeated exposure
Value enhancing effects/ Value diminishing effects
Stimulus Pairings
Contingency
Determinants of Stimulus Value
Delay Rate Quality Magnitude Motivating Operations
Delay as a determinant of stimulus value
Delays to reinforcement can weaken effectiveness of behavioral arrangements and result in the decrease in the value of a reinforcer.
Rate as a determinant of stimulus value
Rate of reinforcement affect relative response allocation
Organisms will distribute behavior among concurrently available alternatives in same proportion that reinforcers distributed among those alternatives
Matching Law
Conceptualized in terms of level of preference
Quality
Can vary according to quantity, intensity, or duration
Magnitude
An environmental event, operation, or stimulus condition that serves 2 functions
Motivating Operation
Two functions of MO
Reinforcer-establishing function
Evocative function
Momentarily alters the reinforcing effectiveness of other events
Reinforcer-establishing function
Momentarily alters the frequency of occurrence of the type of behaviors that produces those other events as a consequence
Evocative function
Momentarily increases the reinforcing effectiveness of stimulus and momentarily increases the frequency of behavior that produce the stimulus as a consequence
Stimulus deprivation
Momentarily decreases the reinforcing effectiveness of stimulus and momentarily decreases the frequency of behavior that produce the stimulus as a consequence
Stimulus satiation
Refers to sensitivity to price, extent to which changes in unit price influence consumption of the commodity
Elasticity of demand
Changes in price produce less than proportional changes in consumption
Inelastic demand
Changes in price produce larger than proportional changes in consumption
Elastic demand
What influences Elasticity of Demand?
Constraints on income
Open versus closed economies
Nature of available alternatives
Consumption of reinforcer not dependent on responding within earning context; supplemental access to reinforcer provided outside of earning context
Open economies
Consumption of reinforcer entirely dependent on responding within earning context; no supplemental access
Closed economies
Demand is more elastic when
Substitutable reinforcers are concurrently available
Reinforcers that share important functional properties
Substitutable reinforcers
Determinants of Stimulus Value
Contingency
Accumulation and Continuity
Variation and Choice
The amount of work the person has to complete to earn reinforcer influence the subsequent effectiveness of that reinforcer
Contingency
Reinforcers need not be consumed following each completion of a schedule requirement but rather can be accumulated then collected and consumed later
Accumulation
Reasons for accumulating reinforcers
Does not interrupt ongoing behavior
Requires fewer teacher resources
Procedures that interrupt continuity might alter the quality of the reinforcer, thus discounting its effectiveness
Continuity
Delivery of a brief period of access each time a small response requirement is met
Distributed reinforcement
Delivery of all reinforcement at the same time following the completion of a larger response requirement
Accumulated reinforcement
Conclusion about accumulation
Accumulated access mediated through tokens support:
Faster work
Greater overall quantity of work
Preferred by learner
What promotes accumulation
Consumption cost
Interest for savings
Nature of reinforcer and continuity
Arranges for rotation of different reinforcers following responding
Stimulus Variation
Findings about stimulus variation
Increase response rate and decrease IRT
Preferred even if varied reinforcers are of lesser preference but still moderately preferred
Types of Choice
Pre-session selection
Within-session selection
Pre-session selection
Ask which reinforcer they would like to earn in the following instructional session
Within-session selection
Permit learner to choose from a small array of reinforcers each time the schedule requirement is met
Potential reasons why “reinforcement” may not work
- Contrived external contingencies where contingencies were not needed.
- Procedural mismatches between response and its outcome
Types of procedural mismatches
- The stimulus used was not a reinforcer
- The stimulus was not a reinforcer under specific conditions in which it was arranged
- The stimulus was no longer a reinforcer under these conditions
- A response-reinforcer contingency was arranged but was not contacted
- The stimulus followed the wrong response
Decrease in responding may result from
- Overjustification
- Punishment: Time out from preferred activity
- Discriminative properties of of reinforcers: Reinforcer evokes incompatible behavior
