B-7 Automatic and Socially Mediated Contingencies

Question 1

Automatic Contingencies

Answer 1

Behavior that is maintained by automatic contingencies can produce their own consequences without another person changing the environment in an way

1. Automatic reinforcement
2. Automatic Punishment

Question 2

Automatic Reinforcement

Answer 2

Stimuli that increases the likelihood of behavior occurring in the future without anybody else changing the environment in any way.

Ex: Hungry—Go to kitchen—Eat snack (Behavior)—snack satisfies hunger (Consequence)—In future more likely to get snack when hungry

Question 3

Automatic Punishment

Answer 3

Stimuli that decreases the likelihood of behavior occurring in the future without anybody else changing the environment in any way.

Ex: Texting while walking in house—Walks into wall—It hurts—This reduces the behavior of walking in the house while texting

Question 4

Socially Mediated Reinforcement

Answer 4

Consequences in the form of reinforcement (sometimes punishment) that occur only with the intervention of another person

Ex: Hail a cab. A cab driver pulls over to give a ride

Question 5

Bootleg Reinforcement

Answer 5

Reinforcement that is not part of the intervention and tends to undermine it.

Ex: Child making fart noises in class—As part of intervention teacher decides to ignore it and not draw any attention to behavior—Yet every time child makes fart noises, classmates giggle and the gets reinforcement

Question 6

Behavioral Contrast

Answer 6

Notion that when a reinforcement for a behavior is provided in one setting, that the behavior will increase in that setting but decrease in another setting.

Also applies to punishment: Behavior punished in one setting will reduce in that setting but increase in another setting where it is not punished.

Question 7

Contiguity

Answer 7

Reinforcement must follow, as closely as possible, to the behavior that one is trying to reinforce