Area 9: Behavior Change Procedures: Part II

Question 1

Response differentiation involves what two components?

Answer 1

Differential reinforcement and changing the criterion for reinforcement

Question 2

Shaping can be a slow, time-consuming process. What is one way to effectively speed up the process?

Answer 2

Model the desired response for the individual.

Question 3

Rarely does shaping progress in a straightforward manner. Often, individuals ___ approximations we expected them to make, thereby moving through the shaping process more ___ than we expected. And sometimes, individuals will get ___ on a step and have difficulty moving forward. This makes it difficult to predict how long the shaping process will take and is one reason why it takes a skilled behavior analyst to shape behaviors effectively.

Answer 3

Rarely does shaping progress in a straightforward manner. Often, individuals skip** approximations we expected them to make, thereby moving through the shaping process more **quickly** than we expected. And sometimes, individuals will get **stuck on a step and have difficulty moving forward. This makes it difficult to predict how long the shaping process will take and is one reason why it takes a skilled behavior analyst to shape behaviors effectively.

Question 4

How reinforcers are ___ (e.g., when they are delivered), ___ (e.g., how often they are varied), and ____ (e.g., whether they are paired with praise, slowly thinned/faded) can all be important to the effectiveness of positive reinforcement.

Answer 4

How reinforcers are arranged** (e.g., when they are delivered), **managed** (e.g., how often they are varied), and **administered (e.g., whether they are paired with praise, slowly thinned/faded) can all be important to the effectiveness of positive reinforcement.

Question 5

Experimental control when evaluating positive reinforcement is demonstrated by comparing:

Answer 5

Thompson and Iwata (2005) have suggested that fixed time reinforcement (noncontingent reinforcement**) and **differential reinforcement of other behavior may be even more effective control-or comparison-conditions than an absence-of-contingency condition.

Question 6

The ______ _______ _______ predicts 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 levels of engagement. Restricting access to a behavior may make it more valuable, and therefore more effective, as a reinforcer.

Answer 6

The response-deprivation hypothesis predicts 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 levels of engagement. Restricting access to a behavior may make it more valuable, and therefore more effective, as a reinforcer.

Question 7

An example of a motivating operation is:

Answer 7

• Hunger
• Hay fever
• Argument with significant other

Question 8

4 common misuses of the technical term, “extinction,” are:

Answer 8

(1) using extinction to refer to any decrease in behavior
(2) confusing forgetting and extinction
(3) confusing response blocking and sensory extinction
(4) confusing noncontingent reinforcement and extinction.

Question 9

Resistance to extinction is greater when…

Answer 9

…extinction is carried out under high motivation than under low

Question 10

The author presents 10 guidelines to follow before and during the application of extinction. They are:

Answer 10

(1) withholding all reinforcers maintaining the problem behavior
(2) withholding reinforcement consistently
(3) combining extinction with other procedures
(4) using instructions
(5) planning for extinction-produced aggression
(6) increasing the number of extinction trials
(7) including significant others in extinction
(8) guarding against unintentional extinction
(9) maintaining extinction-decreased behavior
(10) knowing when not to use extinction.

Question 11

____ _____(___) is used to strengthen behavior, primarily during the initial stages of learning.

Since Timmy’s behavior of clearing his plate after he eats is new, his mother should use ___.

Answer 11

Continuous reinforcement (CRF) is used to strengthen behavior, primarily during the initial stages of learning.

Since Timmy’s behavior of clearing his plate after he eats is new, his mother should use CRF.

Question 12

Which schedule of reinforcement occurs when two or more contingencies of reinforcement operate independently and simultaneously for two or more behaviors?

Answer 12

Concurrent schedules of reinforcement

Question 13

Which schedule of reinforcement presents two or more basic schedules of reinforcement in an alternating (usually random) sequence usually occurring successively and independently with no correlated discriminative stimuli?

Answer 13

Mixed schedules of reinforcement

Question 14

Which schedule of reinforcement produces a post-reinforcement pause

Answer 14

Fixed ratio

Question 15

Give 2 examples of stimulus control:

Answer 15

1. When a dog has been trained to salivate when a bell rings by repeatedly pairing meat powder and a bell, this is an example of stimulus control.
2. When an individual has been trained to say the word “red” when he is shown a card that says RED (but not when he has been shown a card that says GREEN), this is an example of stimulus control.

Question 16

Transitivity is demonstrated when:

Example:

Answer 16

An untrained stimulus-stimulus relation emerges as a product of training two other stimulus-stimulus relations.

Example: If you taught that the spoken word bike is equal = to a picture of a bike, the knowledge that the picture of the bike is equal to = the written word bike without additional instruction

Question 17

Stimulus equivalence:

Answer 17

1. Provides a methodology for efficient teaching-expanding learners’ skills far beyond what is directly taught.
2. Describes the general emergence of accurate responding to untrained and nonreinforced stimulus-stimulus relations following the reinforcement of responses to some stimulus-stimulus relations:

• Reflexifity A=A (generalized identity matching
• Symmetry A=B, then B=A
• Transitivity A=B and B=C from

Question 18

With an understanding of the imitation process, applied behavior analysts can use imitation as an intervention to:

Answer 18

Evoke new behaviors; the objective of imitation training is for new behaviors to emerge.

Question 19

Many behaviors may be learned by just happening to see someone else demonstrate the behavior. These are called ___ ___ because no one planned to demonstrate the behavior to another individual for the purposes of learning.

Answer 19

Many behaviors may be learned by just happening to see someone else demonstrate the behavior. These are called unplanned models because no one planned to demonstrate the behavior to another individual for the purposes of learning.

Question 20

When the modeled behavior and learner-demonstrated behavior physically resemble each other, this is referred to as ___ ____.

Give an example:

Answer 20

When the modeled behavior and learner-demonstrated behavior physically resemble each other, this is referred to as formal similarity.

Example: When a child picks up a fork immediately after observing her father pick up a fork

Question 21

What is a risk of choosing the single-opportunity method of assessment for assessing mastery of a task analysis?

Answer 21

Because you don’t assess all steps to the task analysis with the single-opportunity method of assessment, **you may underestimate the learner’s performance. **

Question 22

Breaking down longer chains into smaller chains and/or skill clusters, teaching each skill cluster, and then chaining each skill cluster is a variation of which form of behavior chaining?

Answer 22

Forward chaining