Exam 3 Flashcards
Antecedent Control Procedures
Nonaversive Intervention
Involves altering the environment
Directly addresses antecedents
Increases the probability of the target behavior and decreases the probability of the undesirable alternative behavior
Nonaversive Interventions
Extinction, antecedent control, reinforcement
Present the S^D for desirable behavior
- The desirable behavior is under the stimulus control of the SD
- When the SD is present, the behavior is more likely
- SDs are cues that serve as prompts or reminders
Presenting Discriminative Stimuli
- Seating arrangement for facilitating conversation in a nursing home
- Fruits in the fridge for eating fruits
- Gas gauge on car
Presenting EOs for desirable behavior
- An EO makes the reinforcer for the desirable behavior more potent
- An EO increases the probability of the desirable behavior
Presenting EOs
Examples
- Arrange a contract for getting work done
- No naps to make sleeping more
likely at night - No books until bedtime for sitting still
Decrease response effort for desirable behavior
- A behavior is more probable when it requires less response effort than does a concurrent operant
- Response effort may be decreased through
environmental manipulation
Decreasing response effort examples
- Recycling box next to desk for recycling papers
- Healthy foods in easy reach for eating healthy
food - Books in backpack
- Easy to use car seats
- Coffee shop on every corner for having a
coffee
Remove SDs for competing undesirable behaviors
In the absence of the SD for the competing behavior, the
competing behavior is less likely
Examples of Removing SDs
Get junk food out of the house (undesirable: eating junk food)
* Keep partying friends out of your place at study time (undesirable:
partying)
* Separate fighting kids at the restaurant (undesirable: fighting)
* Don’t drive past McDonald’s after
school (undesirable: eating McDonald’s)
Examples of increasing response effort
- No change in pockets/purse for candy
machines (undesirable: buying candy) - No junk food in the house (undesirable: eating
junk food) - Seat aggressive person away from victim
(undesirable: aggressive behavior) - Keep remote control for tv away from room in
which tv is located (undesirable: watching tv)
Using antecedent control procedures(three term contingency)
- Identify antecedents and consequences for desirable and competing behaviors
- Assess response effort for desirable and competing behaviors
- Determine which relevant SDs and EOs you can manipulate
- Determine whether you can manipulate response effort for desirable or competing behaviors
Present Abolishing Operation for Competing Behaviors
Present an AO(or eliminate the EO) and the reinforcer for the competing behavior will not be potent
- competing behavior is less likely to occur
Examples of Presenting AOs for competing behaviors
Noncontingent attention to a child when his problematic behavior is
maintained by attention from others (undesirable: problematic behavior)
* Food shopping only after eating so less junk food is purchased
(undesirable: eating junk food)
* Low-sodium levels to drink less water (undesirable: drinking water)
Increase response effort for competing behavior
- A behavior that requires more response effort than a concurrent operant is less likely
- Response effort is increased through environmental manipulation
Fear
fear is understood in terms of operant and respondent behavior
* Operant behavior: escape and avoidance
responses
* Respondent behavior: bodily responses, called
anxiety
Example of Operant and
Respondent Behavior in
Feared Context: Fear of
dogs
- Rapid heart rate, increased muscle tension and other bodily responses are elicited by the sight
of a dog – respondent behavior - Running away from a dog or avoiding places where dogs are located – operant behavior
Procedures to Reduce Fear and Anxiety
- Relaxation training
- Systematic desensitization
- In vivo desensitization
Relaxation Training
- Progressive muscle relaxation
- Diaphragmatic breathing
- Attention-focusing exercise
- Behavioral relaxation training
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Systematically tense and relax each muscle group
Diaphragmatic Breathing
Deep, slow, rhythmic breathing
Attention-Focusing Exercises
Focus attention on words or images to remove attention
hypnosis, visual imagery
Behavioral Relaxation Training
Assume relaxed postures in all parts of the body
Similar to PMR, except that the person DOES NOT tense and relax each muscle group
Systematic Desensitization
Goal: replace anxiety with relaxation as the person imagines the fear situation
* Relaxation should generalize to the actual fear situation
* Pro: It is easier and more convenient to carry out
* Con: The results may not fully generalize to the actual fear-producing situation
Conducting Systematic Desensitization
- Create a hierarchy of fear producing
situations - Teach relaxation skills
- Progress through the hierarchy
In Vivo Desensitization
- Goal: maintain relaxation while approaching
the actual feared stimulus - Generalization more likely…why?
- Variation: contact desensitization
- Pro: The client makes actual contact with the feared stimulus, so generalization is
more likely - Con: Time and effort involved in conducting the procedure
Conducting In Vivo Desensitization
- Create a hierarchy
- Teach relaxation skills
- Progress through the hierarchy
Flooding
Feared stimulus at full intensity
Based on respondent extinction
Modeling
Client observes another person approaching the feared stimulus (or engaging in feared activity)
Cognitive Behavior
covert or imaginal behavior
* Influenced by the same environmental variables that influence overt behavior
Cognitive Behavior Modification
- Client must identify the occurrence of specific thoughts and images
- Remember, a label for the cognitive behavior (e.g., low self-esteem) is NOT an operational definition
ex: I’m no good”
“I can’t do anything right”
“Nobody likes me”
Images of failure
A thought or image functions as a Conditioned Stimulus
- Examples: thoughts or images elicit anxiety, anger, sexual arousal
Functions of Cognitive Behavior
- Conditioned stimulus
- Discriminative stimulus
- Motivating operation (MO)
- Reinforcing and punishing consequences
A thought or image can function as a discriminative stimulus for other operant behavior
Examples: self-instructions, problem-solving,
decision-making lead to successful behavior
Example: behavior of paying a water bill on time
Cognitive Behavior function as a Motivating Operation
Examples: Imagining a positive outcome of an action (a fearful thought is an EO for escape behavior)
Cognitive Behavior functioning as a reinforcer or punisher
self-praise, self-criticism following behavior
Cognitive Restructuring
- Identify the distressing thoughts and the situations where they occur
- Identify the emotional response, mood, or
behavior that follows - Help the client replace distressing thoughts with more rational thoughts
Cognitive Coping Skills Training
- Identify the problem situation and desirable
behavior - Identify the self-instructions to be used in the
situation - Implement BST to teach the self-instructions
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Thoughts and feelings can continue to occur, but individual can still achieve meaningful behavior change goals
* Self-acceptance is key
An antecedent control procedure
is a procedure in which antecedents are manipulated to influence the target behavior.
It may involve manipulating a
- discriminative stimulus (SD),
- establishing operation (EO), or
- response effort for the target behavior or alternative competing behaviors
What do antecedent control procedures do?
- Based on functional assessment information
- One of three functional, nonaversive interventions
- Involves altering the environment in advance of the target behavior
- Addresses antecedents rather than consequences of operant behavior
- Addresses consequences indirectly through manipulation of motivating operations
- Increases the probability of the desirable target behavior and decreases the probability of undesirable alternative behavior
How can you increase the probability
of the target behavior by manipulating a
discriminative stimulus?
Present the SD for the desirable
behavior.
* Remove the SDs for the competing,
undesirable behaviors.
What is an establishing operation,
and how does it increase the probability
of the target behavior?
EOs change the reinforcing properties
of a consequence. If a reinforcer is
“more reinforcing”, it will be more desirable, which should have a greater effect on the target behavior.
* Establishing operations for reinforcers
make us want something more than we might have.
* A state of deprivation is associated
with EOs.
How can you manipulate response
effort to increase the probability of the
target behavior?
- A behavior is more probable when it
requires less response effort than does
a concurrent operant. - A behavior that requires more
response effort than a concurrent
operant is less likely.
Time Out Defined
- Contingent on the problem behavior
- Loss of access to positive reinforcers (for brief period)
- The problem behavior is weakened
Common Errors implementing time out
- Nag, scold, etc. while taking child to TO
- Nag, scold, etc. while child is in TO
- Struggle with child while taking child to TO
- Struggle with child while in TO
- Let child escape TO
- Chase child around the room while in TO
- Terminate TO while problem behavior is
occurring - Tell child to go to TO but don’t follow
through - Threaten TO but don’t follow through
- Give numerous warnings before
implementing TO - Using TO for problem behavior maintained
by escape - Using TO for problem behavior maintained
by self-stimulation
Response Cost
- Contingent on the problem behavior
- A specified amount of a reinforcer is
removed or lost - The problem behavior is weakened
Common Errors Implementing Response Cost
*Repeatedly threaten to take something away
*Don’t follow through
*Scold, nag, get angry as you implement
response cost
*Make reinforcer loss too delayed
*Struggle with the child to take the reinforcer
*In a token economy, take away more tokens
that you deliver
*Implement an unethical reinforcer loss
Extinction vs Time Out vs Response Cost
- Extinction: The reinforcer for the problem
behavior is no longer contingent on the
behavior - Time-Out: The person is removed from all
sources of reinforcement or from the
reinforcing environment contingent on the
problem behavior - Response Cost: Contingent on the problem
behavior, a reinforcer is removed, but not
the reinforcer maintaining the problem
behavior
Time Out Steps
- Start with a functional assessment and implement
functional/nonaversive treatments first - Make sure the ‘time-in’ environment is reinforcing
- Reinforce desirable behaviors
- When the problem behavior occurs, take the child to the time-out area immediately
- Provide no attention when taking the child to time-out
- Time-out must be brief, practical, and safe
- Provide no attention or other reinforcers during time-out
- Prevent escape from time-out
- Child must be calm before release from time out
- Time-out must be acceptable to parents or other change agents before using the procedure
Using response costs steps
- Conduct a functional assessment and first implement functional/nonaversive treatments
- Reinforce desirable behaviors
- Identify the reinforcer to be lost
- Decide if the loss is permanent or temporary
- Explain procedure before implementing
- Contingent on the problem, implement response cost immediately if possible
- Symbolize the reinforcer loss if it is not immediate
- Consider ethical issues regarding the loss of some reinforcers
- Response cost must be practical and acceptable to parents or other change agents
Overcorrection
Effortful behavior contingent on the problem behavior
* Positive Practice: Engage in correct forms
of relevant behavior
* Restitution: Fix the environmental effects that’s disrupted
Guided Compliance
Individual is physically guided to comply with
the request
* Positive punishment to decrease problem
behavior
* Negative reinforcement to increase
compliance
Contingent Behavior
- Effortful behavior “unrelated” to the problem behavior
- Specified period of time
Physical Restraint
- Body part involved is held immobile
- Specified period of time
- Often used with response blocking
Considerations in the use of Punishment by the
Application of Aversive Stimulation
- Begin with nonaversive procedures
- Include differential reinforcement
- Consider the function of the problem behavior
- Carefully choose the aversive stimulus
- Collect data
- Address ethics
*In other words: Important considerations before using any punishment procedure
Non-Exclusionary Time Out
the individual remains in the room while being removed from access to positive reinforcers
Exclusionary Time Out
the individual is removed from the room (the reinforcing environment) where the
problem behavior took place and is taken to another room.
Under what conditions would you use non-
exclusionary time out rather than exclusionary
Nonexclusionary time-out is most likely to be used when (a) the individual can be removed from the reinforcing activities or interactions while still remaining in the room and (b) the presence of the individual in the room will not be disruptive to others in the environment. If both of these criteria cannot be met, then exclusionary time-out would be used instead
Nervous Habits
- Repetitive behavior
- Occurs during heightened tension
- Typically don’t serve a social function
Tics and Tourette‘s disorder/syndrome
A tic disorder involving multiple motor and vocal
tics that have occurred for at least one year
* Motor tics: repetitive, jerking movements of a particular muscle
* Vocal tics: repetitive vocal sound or word uttered by an individual
When does a habit behavior become a habit disorder
- Occurs excessively - great frequency or
long duration - Causes physical damage (e.g., hair loss,
damage to nails or teeth) - Causes distress, social stigma, and/or
embarrassment
Habit Reversal Procedure
Applied to nervous habits, tics, stuttering
* Habit reversal components
1. Identify the habit (also called Awareness training)
2. Competing response (CR) training
3. Social support
4. Motivation procedures
Awareness training
- Response description and detection
procedures - ID each instance of a particular habit
behavior as it occurs or is about to occur
Competing Response Training
- Physically incompatible response
- Implement the competing response
- Competing response: a behavior that a person can perform easily, but is physically incompatible
Social Support
- Parent, spouse, or significant other is involved in treatment
- Parent prompts child
- Parent praises child
Motivation Strategy
Used to increase the likelihood that the client will use the competing response outside the treatment sessions
Why does habit reversal work
- Increase in awareness of the habit behavior
- Competing response
- Serves as a punisher for the habit behavior
- Inhibits the habit behavior
- A combination of reasons
token economy
- A reinforcement system
- Uses conditioned reinforcers (called
tokens) - Used to increase desirable behaviors
- Sometimes used to decrease
undesirable behaviors
examples of token economies
- Poker chips given to students for correct answers in a special education classroom
- Canteen money given to psychiatric hospital patients for appropriate social behavior on the ward
- Marbles stacked in plastic tubes in the nurse’s office delivered for self-help skills exhibited by individuals with intellectual disabilities in a group home setting
- Points entered into the guard’s laptop computer given to prison inmates for completing daily chores and activities
- Holes punched into a card carried by juveniles in a program for delinquents. Hole punches are delivered for pro-social behaviors carried out each day
Essential features of a token economy
- Identify and define the target behaviors
- Identify the items to use as tokens
- Identify and procure back-up reinforcers
- A reinforcement schedule
- A rate at which tokens are exchanged
- A time and place for exchanging tokens
how to implement a token economy
- Design the token economy in advance
- Acquire all materials needed to
carry out the program - Train staff to carry out the program
successfully - Monitor and evaluate
Considerations for token economy
- Token delivery should be immediate
- Pair token delivery with praise
- Immediate pairing of backup reinforcers and tokens (early on)
- Fade tokens before the client leaves the program
