Extinction & Punishment Flashcards
What were two techniques that were thought to be effective in reducing self-injurous behaviour in autistic children?
ignoring the self-injurous behaviour (thereby eliminating adult attention as a possible source of reinforcement) and simultaneously rewarding incompatible behaviours such as hand clapping & singing songs
Discuss the experiment of punishment with self-injurous autistic John
- once a day John was taken out of restraints & given immediate electric chocks every time he hit himself
- during 1st 15 baseline sessions (without any intervention) John hit himself 250 times
- when punishment was introduced this behaviour disappeared almost immediately
What are the factors introducing punishment?
- manner of introduction
- immediacy of punishment
- schedule of punishment
- availability of alternative behaviours
- stimulus control
- verbal
- emotional effects
Discuss the manner of introduction as a way of influencing the effectiveness of punishment
first introduce mildest punishment & only increase if it is proved ineffective
Discuss the immediacy of punishment as a way of increasing the effectiveness of punishment
A punisher that immediately follows a response is most effective in decreasing the fee
Discuss schedule of punishment
It is suggested that the most effective way to eliminate behaviour is to punish every response rather than to use some intermittent schedule of punishment
Discuss availability go alternative behaviours
Punishment is more effective when the subject is provided with an alternative way to obtain the reinforcer e.g. pigeons provided with a second key to peck, only pecking to the first key were punished
Discuss stimulus control
another important factor in determining the effectiveness of punishment is the similarity between the conditions during training and testing- thus if you want to eliminate a behaviour in its entirety it might not be sufficient to punish it in only one situation e.g. the little girl learned that only head banging was punished in the clinic & not at home/school, when this changed the behaviour dropped to zero within a week
Discuss verbal explanation
the extensive use of reasoning increases the effectiveness of punishment, relative to the use of punishment alone
Discuss emotional effects
emotional effects such as fear, anxiety and anger are generally disruptive of learning
what is one of the most common reinforcers to maintain unwanted behaviours is?
attention
What sometimes increases at the beginning of an extinction process?
the unwanted behaviour
Can episodes of spontaneous recovery occur after extinction?
yes
What is the most important factor influencing resistance to extinction? Discuss
the schedule of reinforcement - behaviour that has been maintained on an intermittent (partial) schedule of reinforcement will extinguish more slowly than that on a continuous schedule
Discuss the magnitude of a reinforcer as influencing extinction
large-magnitude reinforcers sometimes result in greater resistance to extinction than small-maginitude reinforcers
Discuss the degree of deprivation in relation to extinction
the greater level of deprivation, the greater the resistance to extinction
Discuss previous experience with extinction in relation to extinction
the greater the number of prior exposures to extinction the quicker the behaviour will extinguish during subsequent exposures
what did skinner propose that spontaneous recovery was a function of, give e.g
discriminative stimuli e.g. for rat the experiencing of being taken from the home cage, weighed, and placed in a chamber is itself a signal for food - child who throws tantrum in supermarket to get lolly, entering supermarket itself is a discriminative stimulus
what do the terms reinforcer and punisher refer to
the actual consequences of the behaviour
what do the terms reinforcement and punishment refer to
the process or procedure
what is positive punishment
behaviour reduction procedure where a behaviour is followed by the presentation of a stimulus that is unpleasant/aversive
what is negative punishment
behaviour reduction procedure in which a stimulus is usually considered pleasant or rewarding, is removed if the behaviour occurs
A stimulus that signals that a response will be punished iso called a …. for punishment
discriminative stimulus
What is important for punishment to be effective?
for the punishment to be effective
What did Seligman find about a limitation of punishment e.g. dogs not escaping shocks
can pose special dangers in education - it can lead to a dislike of a subject and even a deterioration in learning
Discuss some more limitations of punishment
- punishment can sometimes lead to a suppression in all behaviours, not only the behaviour being punished
- punishment demands continual monitoring, reinforcement does not
- a practical problem is that individuals may try to circumvent the rules or escape the situation ( child may hide evidence of misbehaviour)
- reluctance to use punishmentî11
what is a response cost
a type of negative punishment where a reinforcer is taken away whenever the target response occurs e.g. points/money
