ABA Wk.3 (18) - Operant Conditioning Flashcards
Automatic Reinforcement
Two meanings:
1) Automatic reinforcement is determined by the absence of social mediation. (Refers to the behavior-stimulus change relation that occurs without the presentation of consequences by other people.) Often in the form of a naturally produced sensory consequence that “sounds good, looks good, tastes good, smells good, feels good” (e.g., scratching an itch).
2) Automatic reinforcement is assumed when a behavior persists in the absence of any known reinforcer. (e.g., head rolling, hair pulling, body fondling)
Conditioned Reinforcer
A conditioned reinforcer (sometimes called a secondary reinforcer or learned reinforcer) is a previously neutral stimulus change that has acquired the capability to function as a reinforcer through stimulus-stimulus pairing with one or more unconditioned reinforcers or conditioned reinforcers. Through repeated pairings, the previously neutral stimulus acquires the reinforcement capability of the reinforcer(s) with which it has been paired.
For example, after a tone has been paired repeatedly with food, when food is delivered as a reinforcer, the tone will function as a reinforcer when an EO has made food a currently effective reinforcer.
Generalized Conditioned Reinforcer
A generalized conditioned reinforcer is a conditioned reinforcer that as a result of having been paired with many unconditioned and conditioned reinforcers does not depend on a current EO (Establishing Operation) for any particular form of reinforcement for its effectiveness.
For example, social attention (proximity, eye contact, praise) is a generalized conditioned reinforcer for many people because it has occurred simultaneously with many reinforcers
Positive Reinforcement
Positive reinforcement occurs when a response is followed immediately by the presentation of a stimulus change that increases the future occurrence of similar responses.
Premack Principle
Making the opportunity to engage in a behavior that occurs at a relatively high free operant (or baseline) rate contingent on the occurrence of low-frequency behavior will function as reinforcement for the low-occurrence behavior.
For a student who typically spends much more time watching TV than doing homework, a contingency based on the Premack principle (informally known as
“Grandma’s Law”) might be, “When you have finished your homework, you can watch TV.”
Reinforcer Assessment
Reinforcer assessment, in contrast, puts the highly preferred, potential reinforcers to a direct test by presenting them contingent on occurrences of a behavior and measuring performance effects
Response-deprivation Hypothesis
Response-deprivation Hypothesis: a model for predicting whether access to one behavior (the contingent behavior) will function as reinforcement for another
behavior (the instrumental response) based on the relative baseline rates at which each behavior occurs and whether access to the contingent behavior represents a restriction compared to the baseline level of engagement.
Rule-governed Behavior
Rule-governed behavior is behavior controlled by a rule (i.e., a verbal statement of an antecedent-behavior consequence contingency) that enables human behavior to come under the indirect control of temporarily remote or improbable but potentially significant consequences.
Socially Mediated Contingencies
Indirect
Under the direct contingency (Automatic Reinforcement), the reinforcer was placed inside the container to be opened; under the indirect contingency (Socially Mediated Contingencies), the therapist held the reinforcer and delivered it to the participant upon task completion.
Stimulus Preference Assessment
Stimulus preference assessment refers to a variety of procedures used to determine:
(a) the stimuli that the person differentially selects;
(b) the relative hierarchical preference value of those stimuli (high preference to low preference);
(c) the conditions under which those preference values change when task demands, deprivation states, or schedules of reinforcement are modified; and
(d) whether highly preferred items ultimately serve as effective reinforcers.
Unconditioned Reinforcer
An unconditioned reinforcer is a stimulus change that functions as reinforcement even though the learner has had no particular learning history with it. (The terms primary reinforcer and unlearned reinforcer are synonyms for unconditioned reinforcer.)
Avoidance Contingency
Avoidance Contingency: is one in which responding delays or prevents the presentation of a stimulus.
Conditioned Negative Reinforcer
Conditioned negative reinforcers are stimuli whose removal strengthens behavior as a result of previous pairing with other negative reinforcers.
Discriminated Avoidance
In discriminated avoidance, responding in the presence of a signal prevents stimulus presentation.
Escape Contingency
An escape contingency is one in which responding terminates an ongoing stimulus.
Negative Reinforcement
Negative reinforcement involves the termination, reduction, or postponement of a stimulus contingent on the occurrence of a response, which leads to an increase in the future occurrence of that response.
