Chapter Nine - Escape, Avoidance, & Punishment Flashcards
Avoidance Theory of Punishment?
The theory that punishment involves a type of avoidance conditioning in which the avoidance response consists of any behavior other than the behavior being punished.
Conditioned Suppression Theory of Punishment?
The theory that punishment does not weaken a behavior, but instead produces an emotional response that interferes with the occurrence of the behavior.
Punishment doesn’t stop the behavior, but makes you feel bad, which makes you stop doing the behavior.
Exposure & Response Prevention (ERP)?
A method of treating OCD that involves prolonged exposure to anxiety-arousing events while not engaging in the compulsive behavior pattern that reduces the anxiety.
A treatment for OCD where you face your fears without doing the behaviors that usually make you feel better.
Extrinsic Punishment?
Punishment that is not an inherent aspect of the behavior being punished but is the result of a separate event that follows the behavior.
Punishment that happens because of something outside the behavior itself, like a punishment that follows the action but isn’t part of it.
Generalized Punisher?
An event that has become punishing because it has in the past been associated with many other punishers.
A punishment that becomes bad because it’s been linked to many other bad things in the past.
Intrinsic Punishment?
Punishment that is an inherent aspect of the behavior being punished, that is, the act of engaging in the behavior is itself punishing.
Learned Helplessness?
A decrement in learning ability that results from repeated exposure to uncontrollable aversive events.
A feeling of not being able to control things because you’ve experienced repeated situations where nothing you do helps.
Premack Principle of Punishment?
A low-probability behavior (LPB) can be used to punish a high-probability behavior (HPB).
Primary Punisher?
Any event that is innately punishing.
Something that’s naturally unpleasant, like pain or discomfort.
Response Cost?
A form of negative punishment involving the removal of a specific reinforcer following the occurrence of a behavior.
Taking away something you like (like screen time) when you misbehave.
Secondary Punisher?
An event that has become punishing because it has in the past been associated with some other punisher.
Something that becomes unpleasant because it has been linked to something else that’s bad (like a warning tone that comes before something unpleasant).
Time-out?
A form of negative punishment involving the loss of access to positive reinforcers for a brief period of time following the occurrence of a problem behavior.
You lose access to something enjoyable (like playtime) for a short time as a punishment for misbehaving.
Two-process Theory of Avoidance?
The theory that avoidance behavior is the result of two distinct processes: (1) classical conditioning, in which a fear response comes to be elicited by a CS; and (2) operant conditioning, in which moving away from the CS is negatively reinforced by a reduction in fear.
Avoidance behavior happens because: (1) you learn to fear something, and (2) escaping that fear is rewarding because it reduces anxiety.
Escape vs. Avoidance?
E = increase behavior by removing aversion.
A = something that is (potentially) aversive.
Two standard procedures for studying avoidance?
- Discrete trial procedure.
- Shock postponement.
