Exam 1 Flashcards
Why should we learn about
behavior modification?
Study habits
• Understanding and treating disorders
• Improving relationships
• Child rearing
• Pet training
• Who has used a learning technique?
Definition: Learning is…
• A change in behavior as a result of experience or practice.
• The acquisition of knowledge.
• Knowledge gained through study.
• To gain knowledge of, or skill in, something through
study, teaching, instruction or experience.
• The process of gaining knowledge.
• A process by which behavior is changed, shaped or
controlled.
• The individual process of constructing understanding
based on experience from a wide range of sources.
Behavioral language & labels
• What are some adjectives we can use to describe
someone and infer their behavior?
• Pros/Cons
General information
Pseudoexplanations & circular reasoning
Treatment Effects
• Excesses & deficits
Context matters
Behavior modification
Improving functioning by changing behaviors using
learning theory principles
• Define the problem
• Treatments change the environment
• Clear definitions of procedures
• Show treatment caused change
• Accountability
Behavior modifier
• Professionals
ABA
CBT
• You
Myth 1: Use of rewards by behavior modifiers to change behavior is
bribery.
• Myth 2: Behavior modification involves the use of drugs and
electroconvulsive therapy.
• Myth 3: Behavior modification treats symptoms; it doesn’t get at the
underlying problems.
• Myth 4: Behavior modification can deal with simple problems, such
as teaching toileting or overcoming fear of heights, but it is not
applicable for complex problems such as low self-esteem or
depression.
• Myth 5: Behavior modifiers are cold and unfeeling and don’t have
empathy for their clients.
• Myth 6: Behavior modifiers deal only with observable behavior;
they don’t deal with thoughts and feelings of clients.
• Myth 7: Behavior modifiers deny the importance of genetics or
heredity in determining behavior.
• Myth 8: Behavior modification is outdated
Myth 1: Use of rewards by behavior modifiers to change behavior is
bribery.
• Myth 2: Behavior modification involves the use of drugs and
electroconvulsive therapy.
• Myth 3: Behavior modification treats symptoms; it doesn’t get at the
underlying problems.
• Myth 4: Behavior modification can deal with simple problems, such
as teaching toileting or overcoming fear of heights, but it is not
applicable for complex problems such as low self-esteem or
depression.
• Myth 5: Behavior modifiers are cold and unfeeling and don’t have
empathy for their clients.
• Myth 6: Behavior modifiers deal only with observable behavior;
they don’t deal with thoughts and feelings of clients.
• Myth 7: Behavior modifiers deny the importance of genetics or
heredity in determining behavior.
• Myth 8: Behavior modification is outdated
• Parenting & child management
• PPP
• PPP
1. Ensuring a safe, supervised and
engaging environment
2. Creating a positive learning
environment that helps children
learn to solve problems
3. Using consistent, predictable and
assertive discipline to help children
learn to accept responsibility for their
behavior and become aware of the
needs of others
4. Having realistic expectations,
assumptions, and beliefs about
children’s behavior
5. Taking care of oneself as a parent
so that it is easier to be patient,
consistent and available to children
• Developing Positive Relationships
Spending quality time with children
Talking to children
Showing affection
Encouraging Desirable Behavior
Using descriptive praise
• Giving attention
Providing engaging activities
Teaching New Skills & Behaviors
Setting a good example
Using incidental teaching
Using Ask, Say, Do Use verbal and physical prompts to
teach new skills
Managing Misbehavior
• Ground rules Establish fair, specific and enforceable rules, 3-12
years
• Directed discussion Identify and rehearse the appropriate behavior,
3-12 years
• Planned Ignoring Intentionally ignore a problem behavior instead of
reacting or giving negative attention to the child, 1-7 years
• Clear, Calm instructions Give a clear instruction to start a new task,
or to stop a problem behavior and start the appropriate alternative
behavior, 2-12 years
• Logical consequences Remove the activity or privilege at the center of
a problem for a brief, set amount of time; Return the activity or
privilege so the child can try again, 2-12 years
• Quiet time When a problematic or serious behavior occurs and the
above strategies have not worked, move the child to the edge of the
activity for a brief, set amount of time; return child to activity when
s/he is calm so s/he can try again.. 18 months-10 years
• Time out
Education
What do you think it helpful when
designing a class? What makes a good
class?
• Instructional goals for a course are
stated in the form of study questions
and application exercises
• Students are given opportunities to
demonstrate their mastery of the course
content through frequent tests or some
combination of tests and assignments
• Students are given detailed information
at the beginning of a course about what
is expected of them on the tests and
assignments in order to achieve various letter
grades
Developmental Disabilities*
Intellectual disabilities
Self-help skills (e.g., dressing oneself)
Communication
Vocational
Social skills
• ASD
Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI)
Starts very early (under 30 months)
Social skills, communication, self-stimulation
Mental Health Settings
• Schizophrenia
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Healthcare
• Behavioral medicine & health psychology
• Preventative health care/healthy routines
• Treatment compliance
• Management of caregivers
• Stress management
• Geronotology
• Community psychology
Helping the whole community
• I/O psych
• Sport Psych
Diversity
Culture Matters
Interact with client
But the also the behaviors
Behaviorism
Environmental influence on observable behavior
Law of parsimony
Classical Conditioning
Pavlov
Classical Conditioning
Getting a neutral stimulus to produce a response after
being paired with a stimulus that naturally produces that
response
John Watson
Believed focus on conscious experience led to no results
with no practical significance
Vague
Unreplicable
Need for objectivity
Proponent of animal research
Watson’s behaviorism
Methodological/classical
Watson’s behaviorist theory focused not on the internal emotional and psychological conditions of people, but rather on their external and outward behaviors. He believed that a person’s physical responses provided the only insight into internal actions.
Watson’s behaviorism
Learning involves development of a connection between
event (stimulus) and behavior (response)
Behavior is reflexive
S-R theory
Complex behavior is made up of long S-R chains
Joseph Wolpe
Reciprocal inhibition
1. a technique in behavior therapy that aims to replace an undesired response (e.g., anxiety) with a desired one by counterconditioning.
Systematic desensitization
Systematic desensitization is an evidence-based therapy approach that combines relaxation techniques with gradual exposure to help you slowly overcome a phobia.
Operant Conditioning
Thorndike
Interested in animal intelligence
Don’t accept anecdotes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fanm–WyQJo
Operant conditioning, sometimes referred to as instrumental conditioning, is a method of learning that uses rewards and punishment to modify behavior. Through operant conditioning, behavior that is rewarded is likely to be repeated, and behavior that is punished will rarely occur.
BF Skinner
Radical behaviorism
The goal of behaviorism should be to understand the
environmental factors affecting behavior.
Internal events shouldn’t explain behavior, they are
behaviors that should be explained
Covert behaviors
Problem with internal events
Personal descriptions of feelings can be vague
Hard to determine relationship of thoughts and feelings
Can’t change directly
Pseudo-explanations
Radical behaviorism
Skinner rejected S-R for complex behaviors
Operants
Focus is not on expectations (Tolman) but on past
Consequences: rewards and punishments
Countercontrol
Manipulate the environment to change its impact
Radical Behaviorism is the school of thought pioneered by B. F. Skinner that argues that behavior, rather than mental states, should be the focus of study in psychology. Skinner’s science of behavior emphasizes the importance of reinforcement and the relationships between observable stimuli and responses.
Experimental analysis of
behavior (behavior analysis)
Practical application of OC
ABA
Disorder treatments
Education
Public policy
Social Learning
Albert Bandura
Social Learning Theory (social cognitive theory)
Imitation
Cognitive variables
Focus on
Broad patterns
Expectations
Internal events influence behavior
Self-referent thoughts
Led, in part, to CBT
Activity
You see a child hit another child, how would you explain
this behavior?
Watson
Skinner
Bandura
Activity
If you were a teacher how would this affect your
teaching, views, activities, etc.?
Watson
Skinner
Bandura
Behavioral Assessment in 4 Phases
• Intake/Screening
1. Is this an appropriate place to assist with the behavior?
2. Policies & Procedures
3. Screen for crisis conditions
4. Interview and test for diagnosis
5. Initial info about behavior to be assessed
• Baseline
• Current deficits/excesses
Behavioral Assessment in 4 Phases
• Treatment
• Design a program
• Continue to monitor/assess
• Follow-up
• Does behavior change after ending the program?
Indirect Assessment
• Interviews
• Rapport building
• Can help identify behavior
• Questionnaires
• Life history
• Self-report problem checklists
• Survey schedules
• What do you like to do/eat/drink/etc.
• Third-party behavioral checklists
• Role-playing
• Client self-monitoring
Variables Defined by Their Nature
Behavioral variables
• observable responses of the organism
Stimulus variables
• context/situation surrounding the behavior
Subject variables
• characteristics of organism
Variables Defined by Their Use
•Independent variable (IV)
• manipulated by the experimenter
•Dependent variable (DV)
• measured by the experimenter
• Extraneous variables
• Any variable, other than the IV, that might affect the DV
• Variables as constants
•Establish causality between IV and
DV
Practice
•One child hits another and takes his toy
• behavioral
• stimulus
• subject
• IV and DV
• Extraneous
Practice
•One child hits another and takes his toy
• behavioral
• stimulus
• subject
• IV and DV
• Extraneous
• Stimulus
• Event that can potentially influence behavior
•Response
• Instance of a behavior
• Stimulus
• Event that can potentially influence behavior
•Response
• Instance of a behavior
Behaviors
•Overt behavior
• Can be directly observed by other
• Covert behavior
• only perceived by actor
Stimuli
•Appetitive
• Sought out
•Aversive
• Avoided
Establishing operation
•Deprivation
• Prolonged absence, increases appetitiveness
• Satiation
• Prolonged exposure, decreases appetitiveness
• Contiguity
• Closeness
• Temporal
• Spatial
• Contingency
• Predictive
• Contiguity
• Closeness
• Temporal
• Spatial
• Contingency
• Predictive
Operational Definitions
• Procedures used to measure and/or manipulate a
variable
•Described in sufficient detail that another researcher
could make same observations
•More careful and complete the operational
definition, the more precise the measurement of the
variable
Aggression??
•Dictionary definition
•Operational definition
•An IV??
•An DV??
Our Operational Definition
• Students who drink soda before the SAT will outperform
those students who do not drink any soda before the
test.
Students?
How Much?
What Kind?
What Part of SAT?
•How are these definitions helpful in learning
(outside of research)?
• Understanding the task, request, etc.
Measuring Behaviors
•Rate of response
• Frequency a response occurs in a set period of time
• Best for brief, well-defined time periods
• Best example: rats pushing levers
• Used by radical behaviorists because it’s sensitive to other
variables
• Can be an indicator of fluency
Cumulative recorder
a continuous tally or graph to which new data are added. In conditioning, for example, a cumulative record is a graph showing the cumulative number of responses over a continuous period of time.
Measuring Behaviors
•Intensity
• Force or magnitude of behavior
• Classical conditioning example:
• Tone: Mint Salivation
• Tone Salivation
Measuring Behaviors
•Intensity
• Force or magnitude of behavior
• Classical conditioning example:
• Tone: Mint Salivation
• Tone Salivation
•Duration
• Length of time an individual repeatedly or continuously
performs a behavior
• Used when you want to increase or decrease length of
time behavior occurs
•Duration
• Length of time an individual repeatedly or continuously
performs a behavior
• Used when you want to increase or decrease length of
time behavior occurs
• Speed
• How quickly a behavior occurs
• Speed
• How quickly a behavior occurs
• Latency
• Behavior onset
• Latency
• Behavior onset
• Topography
• Physical form of the behavior (how is it done)
• Topography
• Physical form of the behavior (how is it done)
•Number of errors
•How well task has been learned
• Wrong turns on a maze
• Wrong answers on a test
• Failures of memory
•Number of errors
•How well task has been learned
• Wrong turns on a maze
• Wrong answers on a test
• Failures of memory
•Interval recording
• Measurement of whether a behavior occurs during each
interval within a series of continuous intervals
• Do not need to record every response
• Helpful when start-end points aren’t clear
•Interval recording
• Measurement of whether a behavior occurs during each
interval within a series of continuous intervals
• Do not need to record every response
• Helpful when start-end points aren’t clear
• Time-sample recordings
• Measurement of whether a behavior occurs during each
interval within a series of discontinuous intervals
• Efficient for researchers
• Time-sample recordings
• Measurement of whether a behavior occurs during each
interval within a series of discontinuous intervals
• Efficient for researchers
•Reliability
• Consistency of measurement
•Interrater reliability: degree of agreement
between independent raters
• controller protocols
•Descriptive research
• Describe behavior and situation
• No manipulation
Naturalistic Observation
• Process of watching without interfering as behavior
occurs in natural environment
• Advantages
• Large amounts of data
• Examination of topics not easily done in a lab
• Pitfalls
• Participants may act differently around observer
• Distorted observations: observer bias
• Inferences abound!
Case Studies
•Intensive study of behaviors/mental processes in a
particular individual, group, or situation
•Advantages
• Great for studying new or rare phenomena
• Pitfall
• Not necessarily representative
Comparative Research
•Concerned with evaluating differences between
existing groups
• Groups defined by preexisting variables
• Group composition is outside of researcher’s control
•Interpreting group differences takes skill,
knowledge, and caution
True Experiments
• Can conclude causation
•Manipulates IV and measures change in the DV
•Random Assignment
• Control group – no manipulation
• Experimental group(s) – IV manipulation
• Resulting differences are concluded to be from the IV
• Can prevent some biases
• Double blind experiments
Single-subject or Baseline Designs
• Create experimental control in a single-subject
situation
• Unlike case studies, experimenter actively controls
variable
• Single-subject designs are extensions of withinsubjects designs
• One participant is tested under all conditions
• Measured from baseline period to treatment periods
Single subject design
•Reversal or withdrawal design
• Called an ABA design
• Baseline (A) → Treatment (B) → Baseline (A)
• The use of praise as a treatment to measure the improvement of a child’s
school performance
• Measure test scores → give regimen of praise for correct homework problems
→ measure test scores
The ABA Design
What are ABA designs?
a type of single-case design having three phases: a baseline condition in which no treatment is present (Phase A), a treatment condition in which a manipulation is introduced (Phase B), and a return to the no-treatment condition (Phase A).
ABA–Reversal design
ABA–Reversal design
•Used in behavior therapy
• Pick-up your clothes!!
• if don’t recover baseline, difficult to eliminate rival
hypotheses
Multiple baseline design
Change is observer under multiple
circumstances
• The manipulation is introduced at different times
• Determines that the manipulation caused change
• Solves non-recoverability of baseline problem
• Across behavior
• Multiple DVs, same person
• Across situation
• Same DV, different environment
Issues
•No statistical test
• Subject is their own control
• large effects
• Establish causality
• stable baseline
• recover the baseline
Issues
•No statistical test
• Subject is their own control
• large effects
• Establish causality
• stable baseline
• recover the baseline
How do we know if it worked?
• Replication
• No overlap of baseline treatment
• Timing
• When treatment is introduced
• Effect of change
• Clear definitions of procedures
• Measure reliability
• Consistency with theory
How do we know if it worked?
• Replication
• No overlap of baseline treatment
• Timing
• When treatment is introduced
• Effect of change
• Clear definitions of procedures
• Measure reliability
• Consistency with theory
How do we know if it worked?
• Social validity
• Are the target behaviors important for the client and society?
• Is the client accepting of the procedures, especially when other effective
ones may exist
• Is the client happy with the results?
• Methods
• Ask about satisfaction with the procedure and goals
• Preference tests
• Compare a client’s results with peers
Elicited Behaviors
• Automatic response to a stimulus
• Often involuntary
• Salivation
• Startle
• Sneezing
Reflexes
• Automatic
• Innate (no learning necessary)
• Rooting and sucking reflex
• Tied to survival
• Startle response
• Tightening of skeletal muscles, hormone changes, organ
changes
• Orienting response
• Attention to stimuli
• Flexion response
• Jerk limbs away from
Fixed Action Pattern
• “Modal action patterns”
• Sequence of responses elicited by a stimuli
• Sign stimulus, releaser
• Usually species-specific
• Coping with specific aspects of environment
Examples?
• Play bows
• Web building
• Flying V
Habituation and Sensitization
Habituation
• Decrease in strength of elicited behavior with repeated
presentations
• Usually stimulus specific
• Coolidge effect
Sensitization
• Increase in strength with repeated presentations
• Often generalizes
Anticipation
• Learn associations between events
• Anticipate what’s going to happen
• LEARNING!
Classical Conditioning
• Getting a neutral stimulus to produce a response
after being paired with a stimulus that naturally
produces that response
• Also called respondent conditioning by radical
behaviorists
• Behaviors = respondents
• US – unconditioned stimulus – produces the
reaction
• UR – unconditioned response – automatic reaction
• CS – conditioned stimulus – initially neutral
• CR – conditioned response – same as UR but
produced by CS
• US – unconditioned stimulus – produces the
reaction
• UR – unconditioned response – automatic reaction
• CS – conditioned stimulus – initially neutral
• CR – conditioned response – same as UR but
produced by CS
• Appetitive conditioning
• US that is sought out
• Food, water, drugs, sex
• Aversive conditioning
• US that is avoided
• Fear, pain, unpleasant odors
• Happens quickly, few pairings needed
• Taste aversion
Reinforcement-affect model
• Attraction can be related to connection between
person and positive or negative emotional events
• Sounds, sights, smells
this theory proposes that people will be attracted not only to other people who reward them but also to those people whom they associate with rewards.
Temporal conditioning
• CS is passage of time period
• Anticipate US occurring at certain time
• Time period or time of day
Principles of Classical
Conditioning
• How do we know what to react to (what’s the CS)?
• Generalization
• CR occurs BUT the CS is slightly different
• Semantic generalization - language
• Discrimination
• Distinguish between similar but distinct stimuli
Influencing factors
• More times CS is paired with US
• CS occurs slightly before US
• Consistency in pairing
• Even if there are multiple NS
• Stronger stimuli work better
• Aspects that stand out (salience)
Influencing factors
• More times CS is paired with US
• CS occurs slightly before US
• Consistency in pairing
• Even if there are multiple NS
• Stronger stimuli work better
• Aspects that stand out (salience: how prominent or emotionally striking something is)
• Extinction
• Stop pairing US and CS
• Lose CR
• How would this work for the Pavlov’s dogs? Dwight?
• If US and NS are re-paired, rapidly show CR
• Higher order (second-order) conditioning
• CS from one study essentially becomes the US for
another
• Don’t need the original US
• Dog (NS) : Bite (US) → Fear (UR)
• Dog (CS) → Fear (CR)
• Unfenced yard(NS2
) + Dog (CS1
) → Fear (CR)
• Unfenced yard(CS2
) → Fear (CR)
• Higher order (second-order) conditioning
• CS from one study essentially becomes the US for
another
• Don’t need the original US
• Dog (NS) : Bite (US) → Fear (UR)
• Dog (CS) → Fear (CR)
• Unfenced yard(NS2
) + Dog (CS1
) → Fear (CR)
• Unfenced yard(CS2
) → Fear (CR)
Second order conditioning
• Celeb endorsements
• Or this Or this
Second order conditioning
• Celeb endorsements
• Or this Or this
Second-order conditioning (SOC) describes a phenomenon whereby a conditioned stimulus (CS) acquires the ability to elicit a conditioned response (CR) without ever being directly paired with an unconditioned stimulus (US)
Overshadowing
• Compound stimuli
• Simultaneous presentation of 2+ individual stimuli
• Most distinct part of compound stimulus is most
easily conditioned
• Interferes with conditioning of less distinct parts
• Dog bite example
• Most salient?
• Less salient?
in classical conditioning, a decrease in conditioning with one conditioned stimulus because of the presence of another conditioned stimulus. Usually a stronger stimulus will overshadow a weaker stimulus.
Phobias
Temperament
• Emotionality and reactivity to stimulation
• Partially genetically determined
• Little Albert chosen because of perceived emotional
stability
Preparedness
• Species are genetically prepared to learn certain
associations more easily than others
• Predisposed to develop specific fears
• Single trial learning
• resistant to extinction
• Irrational (i.e., unaffected by cognitive influence)
• Restricted to specific UC-US combinations
Phobias
• Why don’t fear extinguish?
• Incubation
• Conditioned fear responses can be strengthened by repeated,
brief exposures to an aversive CR
• Stronger fear response as a result of brief exposure to the US
• Falling from heights = fear
• Guess how often I spend in those situations
• When organism encounters CS, the contact is brief
• Brief encounters - fear cannot extinguish = stronger
fear
• Prevents familiarity
• CR can become stronger than UR
Phobias
• Why don’t fear extinguish?
• Incubation
• Conditioned fear responses can be strengthened by repeated,
brief exposures to an aversive CR
• Stronger fear response as a result of brief exposure to the US
• Falling from heights = fear
• Guess how often I spend in those situations
• When organism encounters CS, the contact is brief
• Brief encounters - fear cannot extinguish = stronger
fear
• Prevents familiarity
• CR can become stronger than UR
Phobias
• Selective sensitization
• Increase in reactivity to potentially stressful
event following exposure to unrelated stressful
event
• Example
• Minor fear of spiders becomes an extreme fear
of spiders during an extremely stressful period
in which the individual is going through a
relationship break up. Stressful reactions to the
end of the relationship generalize to other
potentially aversive events.
Phobias
• Selective sensitization
• Increase in reactivity to potentially stressful
event following exposure to unrelated stressful
event
• Example
• Minor fear of spiders becomes an extreme fear
of spiders during an extremely stressful period
in which the individual is going through a
relationship break up. Stressful reactions to the
end of the relationship generalize to other
potentially aversive events.
Systematic Desensitization
• A CS that elicits one type of response (e.g., fear)
paired with another stimulus that elicits the
opposite response (e.g., relaxation)
• Counter-conditioning; Reciprocal inhibition
• Positive response (relaxation) inhibits negative one
(anxiety)
• Works well with specific phobias
Systematic Desensitization
• A CS that elicits one type of response (e.g., fear)
paired with another stimulus that elicits the
opposite response (e.g., relaxation)
• Counter-conditioning; Reciprocal inhibition
• Positive response (relaxation) inhibits negative one
(anxiety)
• Works well with specific phobias
Aversion Therapy
• Reduces attractiveness of behaviors through
association with aversive stimulus
• Rapid smoking procedure to eliminate smoking
(Danaher, 1977)
• Smokers in program required to inhale cigarette smoke
every 6-10 seconds (many cigarettes)
• Ps associate problem (pleasant) behavior smoking with
nausea
• 1 session is typically enough to produce short-term
abstinence (but large increases in heart-rate; ethics?)
• Mainly in vivo but also imaginal (covert sensitization)
• Also used for sex offenders (electric shock)
• And conversion therapy
Aversion Therapy
• Reduces attractiveness of behaviors through
association with aversive stimulus
• Rapid smoking procedure to eliminate smoking
(Danaher, 1977)
• Smokers in program required to inhale cigarette smoke
every 6-10 seconds (many cigarettes)
• Ps associate problem (pleasant) behavior smoking with
nausea
• 1 session is typically enough to produce short-term
abstinence (but large increases in heart-rate; ethics?)
• Mainly in vivo but also imaginal (covert sensitization)
• Also used for sex offenders (electric shock)
• And conversion therapy
Medical Application
• Allergic reactions
• Example: smell of peanut butter (CS) elicits an
allergic reaction (CR)
• Immune system functioning
• Immunosuppression
• Chemotherapy administered in a hospital setting
• Example: sight of hospital (CS) lowers immune
system functioning (CR)
• May be how placebo effect works
Medical Application
• Allergic reactions
• Example: smell of peanut butter (CS) elicits an
allergic reaction (CR)
• Immune system functioning
• Immunosuppression
• Chemotherapy administered in a hospital setting
• Example: sight of hospital (CS) lowers immune
system functioning (CR)
• May be how placebo effect works
