Final Flashcards
Discrimination:
Refers to precise stimulus control - high middle point on graph that is low on either end
Generalization:
refers to less precise stimulus control - more open on a graph / spread
Stimuli exemplar:
stimuli that represent the range of relevant stimulus situations in which the response should occur after training
Why is generalization important?
Training occurs in one place
Training occurs to a narrow range of stimuli
Describe the strategy to promote generalization that reinforces the occurrence of generalization
training setting and the criterion setting should be similar
training criterion should gradually become more dissimilar
Describe ways to train skills that contact naturally occurring contingencies of reinforement (strategy to promote generalization)
must analyze the natural contingencies at the outset of behaviour modification
train skills that have their own naturally occurring reinforcers (getting fired)
if the particular skills have no naturally occurring reinforcers then train the learner to solicit reinforcement (functional communication training - ask for a reinforcement like candy or asking a teacher how you are doing)
Describe ways to modify contingencies of reinforcement and punishment in the natural environment. (strategy to promote generalization)
requires control over the natural environment (schools, hospitals, correction facilities)
asking a teacher or peer to reinforce the individual when they see the behaviour
Informing others how to react when the behaviour occurs
Describe how to incorporate a variety of relevant stimulus situations in training (strategy to promote generalization).
sample all relevant Sds and Sdeltas for the target behavior
train sufficient stimulus examplars
Stimulus exemplar: stimuli that represent the range of relevant stimulus situations in which the response should occur after training
How can you incorporate common stimuli ? (strategy to promote generalization).
from real world setting ino training setting
make the two contexts similar
How can you train a range of functionally equivalent responses? (strategy to promote generalization).
different Sd’s may require different responses to obtain the same reinforcement
Like opening different kinds of door knobs / entries
Describe how you can provide cues in the natural setting? (strategy to promote generalization).
may include people or aspects of the physical environment
useful if irrelevant aspects of the training scenario (besides the desired sd) are controlling the behaviour
bring in aspects of the training setting into the natural setting
Describe how you can incorporate self-generated mediators of generalization (strategy to promote generalization).
self recording - indicate to yourself that you did it properly / improperly on specific days
Self- instruction
A reminder to when a behaviour should occur
Recap of generalization strategies
Reinforce occurrences of generalization
Train skills to contact natural contingencies of reinforcement
Modify contingencies of reinforcement and punishment in the natural environment
Incorporate a variety of relevant stimulus situations in training
Incorporate common stimuli into training
Teach a range of functionally equivalent responses
Provide cues / prompts in the criterion / target / natural setting
Incorporate self-generated mediators
Describe Self-Management:
When a person uses behaviour modification procedures to change their behaviour, the process is self-management
What are the two types of self-management problems?
behavior deficits and behavior excess
Describe behavior deficits:
Desirable behaviors are NOT occurring
Reinforcers may be delayed
High response effort to obtain the reinforcer - why do it then
Reinforcers may have little value
Competing contingencies offer immediate reinforcement
Competing contingencies offer stronger reinforcers
Punishing contingencies may be in place
Consider the role of antecedent stimuli in the environment
Describe behavior excess:
Undesirable behaviors are occurring excessively (smoking / drinking)
Punishers may be delayed (effects of smoking / overeating)
Immediate reinforcers present
Low response cost to obtain immediate reinforcers - low cost for short term
Competing contingencies offer weak reinforcement - may not be as reinforcing to quit
Competing contingencies may be punished
Consider the role of antecedent stimuli in the environment
What are the immediate and delayed outcomes of behavior deficits?
Immediate: decreased reinforcement value, increased response effort to prepare healthy food, reinforcement for competing behavior (junk food)
Delayed: better health, weight loss, more energy, less constipation
What are the immediate and delayed outcomes of behavior excess ?
Immediate: immediate reinforcement, little response effort, response effort for alternative behaviors
Delayed: lung cancer, heart disease, stained teeth
What are the 5 ways to cope with delayed reinforcers?
Commit to delayed behaviors early and punish non-compliance of this commitment
Throw out a game to punish for playing Xbox
Make the non-compliant behavior delayed or harder to perform
Disconnect Xbox and put into storage and have to set it up again
Remove or delay Sd for engaging in the non-compliant behavior
Keep your Xbox tucked away in a shelf where it is out of sight
Make the non-compliant behavior impossible
Sell your Xbox
Incorporate immediate reinforcers for engaging in the compliant behavior
Give yourself a gummy bear for every paragraph you read in the textbook
Example of self management:
Spencer wants to increase how much he reads. He develops a data sheet on his computer that includes a space to record the time and duration of reading that he did each day and another space for his goal for each day. Spencers’ ultimate goal was to read 490 pages per week; however he started with a goal of reading 20 pages per day then increasing each week until he reached his goal. He kept his book on the kitchen counter, which was easily accessible. He also plotted a graph each week and posted it behind his bed. Spencer also spent time with his gf who read frequently and asked her to keep him accountable for his reading.
Behavior deficit
Describe the controlling behavior and the controlled behavior
Controlling behavior: self-management strategy
Controlled behavior: target behavior to be changed in a self-management program. What behavior you choose.
What is the acronym SMART ?(self-management)
SPECIFIC
MEASUREABLE
ACHIEVABLE
REALISTIC
TIMELY
What can be helpful to use in self management?
Avoid “short-circuiting” the contingency
Have someone else control the consequences
Be very cautious of ratio strain
Consider effects of satiation and deprivation in EOs:
Have multiple reinforcers to choose from
Token economies
What antecedent manipulations are used for presenting Sd & Sdelta?
Present Sds for desirable behaviors
Present sdeltas for undesirable behaviors
What antecedent manipulations are used for removing Sd & Sdelta?
Remove Sds for undesirable behaviors
Remove sdeltas for desirable behaviors
What antecedent manipulations are used for EO & AO
Arrange a EO for desirable behaviors (deprivation)
Arrange a AO for undesirable behaviors (satiation)
What is a behavior contract?
A written document specifying target behavior and contingencies
What are the reinforcers or punishers?
What is the schedule of reinforcement / punishment?
Create contingencies for the behaviors occurrence and nonoccurrence if possible
Having a contract manager is very important - another person holding you accountable
Make your contract / plan public so there are social consequences for failing or succeeding
How can you use self-praise and self-instruction for self-management strategies ?
Self-praise
Making positive statements to yourself or providing positive evaluations of your own behavior after engaging in the appropriate behavior
A conditioned reinforcer
Self-instruction
Statements that make a target behavior more likely to occur in a specific situation
Use in conjunction with self-praise
Use of self-instructions and self-praise is learned over time
Decide what they will be and when they will occur
What are the 8 steps in self-management?
1.Decide to engage in self-management
2.Define target behaviors and competing behaviors
3.Set goal or series of goals
4.Develop self-monitoring plan and begin self-monitoring and collect baseline measurements
5.Conduct a functional assessment of the antecedents and consequences of the target behavior and alternative behaviors (generalization procedures)
6.Implement appropriate self-management strategies based on functional assessment information
7.Evaluate change from baseline once self-management strategies are implemented
8.Modify self-management strategies if necessary
9.Implement maintenance strategies to keep change going over time
Move to intermittent reinforcement schedules
Schedule times to self-monitor behavior occasionally
Describe token economies:
Has no phylogenetic value - there is no biological value such as food or water
Can be exchanged for phylogenetically-significant stimuli
Backup reinforcers
Typically tangible (coins, poker chips, marbles)
Token economies offer high precision
Wolfe (1936) Can tokens establish and maintain behavior?
Chimps were trained to lift a bar system to receive either tokens or food
Later increased response requirement - intermittent reinforcement schedule
Responding effectively maintained for both types of reinforcers
The chimps understood tokens mean food
Cowles (1937) Can tokens establish and maintain behavior?
Chimps given a discrimination task
White tokens = food sd
Brass tokens = no food sdelta
Both food and token groups learned the task rapidly
Learning was more rapid for primary reinforcers
Notes about tokens:
Can be brought under discriminative stimulus control - different colors of poker chips mean different amounts.
Can be differentially reinforced
Reinforcing value can be extinguished
Accumulation of tokens can act as a discriminative stimuli: we want to accumulate tokens to receive rewards.
The more tokens earned the closer you are to exchanging them for the reinforcer. The accumulated tokens function as an antecedent stimulus that generates increased responding.
Can be used to bridge long delays
Describe generalized reinforcers:
Conditional reinforcers that are contingent on multiple forms of unconditional reinforcement. (money). Reinforcers that allow larger amounts or activities.
Makes reinforcers less dependent on effects of deprivation and satiation. We can choose to use our tokens when we want to.
Examples of token economies:
Poker chips given to students for correct answers in a special education classroom
Canteen money given to psychiatric 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
Holes punched into a card for prosocial behaviors each day, carried by juveniles in a correctional program
What is a token exchange schedule?
when can you hand them in, how many are required? (watching a show is 50 points, having lunch is 10)
How many tokens are required to obtain a particular reinforcer?
What is an exchange production schedule?
You can’t receive your tokens and exchange them in the middle of the night.
Only a certain time to get money and buy things from a store.
Is it every day?
What determines when tokens can be exchanged for terminal reinforcement?
Consider the use of a “token store”
What are the two elements of response cost in token economies?
- Define undesirable behaviors that compete with desirable behaviors
2.Decide how many tokens are lost for each behavior
Response cost tips in a token economy:
Do not try to punish the non-occurrence of a behavior by removing tokens
The non-occurrence of a behavior is not a behavior and therefore is not something that can be punished.
If you want a desired behavior but don’t have an undesired behavior do not take any tokens away
How do you deal with a token economy for the long term?
Discontinue the token economy by gradually fading it so desired behaviors are reliant on natural reinforcers
Gradually schedule token delivery more and more intermittently
Describe Habit & Habit behavior
Habit: A settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.
Habit Behavior: a repetitive behavior in one of three categories
What are the 3 categories of habits?
Nervous habits
Tics and Tourettes’ disorder
Stuttering
Briefly describe nervous habits
Repetitive or manipulative behaviors that are most likely to occur when a person experiences heightened tension (nail biting)
Not typically socially / environmentally reinforced (natural psychological reinforcers)
Often harmless unless taken to extremes
What are the 3 types of tics ?
Motor tics: repetitive jerking movements of a particular muscle group in the body
Vocal tics: repetitive vocal sound or word uttered by a person that serves no communicative function
Tourettes disorder: a tic disorder involving multiple motor and vocal tics that have occurred for at least 1 year
Briefly describe stuttering
A speech disfluency in which the individual repeats words or syllables, prolongs a word or sound, and/or halts on a word
For communicative purposes
What is a habit disorder?
A habit disorder happens when a habit occurs excessively with great frequency, intensity, or duration
Excessive to the point where the person engaging in the behavior finds it unreasonable
When it causes physical damage to the person
When it causes distress, social stigma, or embarrassment to the individual
What are the two types of habit reversal procedures? Explain
Awareness training
Teach discrimination of the habit and its antecedents
Competing Response Training
Prompt and reinforce an incompatible response in anticipation of the habit behavior. Should be socially inconspicuous
Try and make your habit almost impossible
Examples of competing responses for habit behaviors:
Motor tics: lightly tense muscles involved in the tic while holding the body parts still
Vocal tics: slow deep breathing through the nose with mouth closed
For nail biting or hair pulling: hands on lap or in pockets, hand grasping an object, hands under arms
For bruxism and other oral habits: holding teeth slightly apart or lightly clenching teeth
For stuttering: diaphragmatically breathing with slight exhale before speaking
What other procedures can be used in habit reversal ?
DRO
Response cost
Response blocking
Self-monitoring
Goal setting
Briefly describe Fear & Anxiety
When a stimulus situation elicits autonomic nervous system arousal and the individual engages in behavior to escape or avoid the stimulus situation
What is the respondent behavior in fear and anxiety?
involves the bodily responses involved in autonomic arousal
What is the operant behavior in fear and anxiety?
involves escape and avoidance responses in the feared situation
Cynophobia example (operant and respondent behaviors)
Respondent behaviors:
Rapid heart rate, increased muscle tension and other bodily responses elicited by the sights or sounds of a dog
Operant behaviors:
Running away from a dog or avoiding places where dogs are located
What disorders involve fear and anxiety?
Separation anxiety
Specific phobias
Agoraphobia
Social anxiety disorder
Generalized anxiety disorder
Panic disorder
OCD
PTSD /ASD
What are the 3 main components of relaxation training?
Muscle tension reduction
Relaxed breathing
Attention focusing
Describe progressive muscle relaxation (PMR)
Person practices systematically tensing and relaxing each of the major muscles in their body
Trains discrimination of specific bodily tensions - discover what tensions you are prone to
Trains a response that can relieve that tension
Relaxation is a physical skill like weight lifting
Tension reduction is often negatively reinforcing
Cue words can be incorporated to act as a CS for the removal of tension
What is diaphragmatic breathing?
Focus on deep, slow, rhythmic breathing to produce relaxation
Belly muscles rather than stress
Shallow breathing is associated with autonomic arousal
What are some attention focusing exercises?
Focus on neutral words, images or tasks to remove attention from anxiety producing stimuli
Built into PMR and Diaphragmatic breathing
Guided imagery, hypnosis, meditation
Describe desensitization:
The logic of desensitization is based on the idea that fear and anxiety are learned respondent behaviors.
EXAMPLE: parents are scared of dogs so you are now too
Desensitization = Extinction
Describe systematic desensitization:
Items in the hierarchy are ordered from least to most fear producing
Items are each given a Subjective Units of Discomfort Scale (SUDS)
How much something subjectively gives you anxiety
Replaces anxiety using relaxation techniques as the person imagines the fearful situation
What is In Vivo desensitization?
Essentially systematic desensitization with non-imagined stimuli
Maintain relaxation while approaching the actual feared stimuli
Seeing a snake, touching the snake, holding the snake
Describe flooding
Client is exposed to feared stimulus at full intensity until fear responses subside
Rarely used in intense phobias
Flooding can be difficult to administer:
Ethical concerns
Escape responses (which can be dangerous)
Medical complications may occur
Describe modeling
Client can observe model live or through video
Define cognitive behavior
Involves self-talk or imaginal behavior
Occurs covertly
Also called “private events”
What are private cognitive events ?
A behavior that is only observable to the person who emits it.
Also called “covert behavior”
All mental / cognitive events are private events
Private events are not necessarily mental / subjective - a sneeze happens but nobody knows
By definition, unverifiable to science
What are public events?
A behavior that is observable by a person other than the one engaging in the behavior.
Also called ‘overt behavior’
Can be verified by scientific methods
What are some examples of cognitive behavioral excess?
Depression
Obsessions / ruminations
Fears / phobias
Worry
What are some examples of cognitive behavioral deficits?
Impulsivity
Poor decision making
Poor problem solving
Examples of cognitive behaviors:
“ I am no good”, “I can’t do anything right”
Label:
Low self esteem
Cognitive Behaviors:
“ I can succeed at this job” , “I am as good as they are”
Label:
Self confidence
What is the problem with circular reasoning?
The observed behavior is given a label
The label is then used as the explanation for the behavior
The label is simply a mane for the behavior and can’t be the cause of the behavior
The causes of behavior are found in the environment
How can cognitive behavior function?
CS
EO
SD
Reinforcer or punisher
What are the 3 steps in cognitive restructuring?
Identify the distressing thoughts and the situations where they occur (from retrospective self-report or from self-monitoring at the time the behavior occurs)
Identify the emotional response, mood, or behavior that follows (from self report or self-monitoring)
Help the client replace distressing thoughts with more rational thoughts
What are the 3 questions used to challenge clients irrational thinking?
Where is the evidence?
Are there alternative explanations?
What are the implications?
Examples of cognitive distortions:
All or nothing thinking
Overgeneralization
Disqualifying the positive
Jumping to conclusions
Magnification and minimization
Labeling and mislabeling
Personalization
What are the four steps in stress inoculation training ?
Identify self-statements that contribute to stress/anxiety and the situations in which they occur.
Generate new coping self-statements to be used in four phases:
Preparing for the stressor
Confronting the stressor
Being overwhelmed by the stressor
Praising self for coping with the stressor
Rehearse coping self-statements in role-plays of the difficult situation
Practice in progressively more stressful situations in the natural environment
