Punishment, Generalisation, Discrimination & Stimulus Control (OC II) Flashcards
What are the two types of punishment?
• Positive punishment: giving a punisher to reduce
behaviour
• Negative punishment: removing a pleasant stimuli to
reduce a behaviour
For example: if we need to discipline a child
- Positive Punishment = smacking
- Negative Punishment = removing toys or privileges
What types of behaviours can be punish? (4)
• Intrinsic punishment: punishment is an inherent aspect
of the behaviour
• Extrinsic punishment: not an inherent part of the
behaviour, but just follows the behaviour
• Primary (unconditioned): innately punishing
• Secondary (conditioned): something that has been
associated with an another perhaps innate punishment
e.g. a disapproving look means that you have done something bad
What are five problems with punishment?
- Escape or avoidance of the punishment
- Aggression towards the punisher
- Apathy or suppression of all behaviour
- Abuse
- Immitation of the punisher
What is timeout?
A type of negative punishment-
The loss of access to positive reinforcers for
a brief period of time following a problem behaviour
What is response cost?
A type of negative punishment-
The removal of a specific reinforcer
following a problem behaviour
Punishment of maladaptive behaviour doesn’t directly
__________ the occurrence of adaptive behaviour
Strengthen
The person delivering the punishment could become a
SD for punishment such that the unwanted behaviour is
only supressed when that person is present. T/F?
True
List three benefits of punishment.
- Punishment can sometimes lead to an increase in
social behaviour - Punishment sometimes results in an improvement in
mood - Punishment can increase attention to the environment
To be effective when punishing, punishing should be (6):
- Immediate
- Consistent
- Intense enough to supress the target behaviour – but
balanced so that it is not abusive - Negative punishment is preferable to positive punishment
- Combined with an explanation (where possible)
- Combined with positive reinforcement for appropriate
behaviour
What are some alternatives to punishment?
• Response prevention: altering the environment to
prevent a behaviour from occurring.
• Extinction: stopping all reinforcement for a behaviour
in order to reduce its frequency.
• Differential reinforcement: combining both nonreinforcement of the unwanted behaviour with
reinforcement of an alternative behaviour.
- Differential reinforcement of alternative behaviour (DRA)
- Differential reinforcement of incompatible behaviour (DRI)
- Differential reinforcement of low rate (DRL)
Variables effecting punishment (7)
A number of factors may impact the experience of a punishment. Including: • Contingency • Contiguity • Punisher Intensity • Introductory Level of Punisher • Reinforcement of the Punished Behaviour • Alternative sources of reinforcement • Motivating operations
How does contingency effect punishment?
The degree to which a punishing event is
dependent on the behaviour.
• The stronger the correlation, the more effective the punishment and the faster a behaviour will change.
How does contiguity effect punishment?
The gap between a behaviour and its consequence
• In general, the longer the delay, the less effective the punisher will be.
How does punisher identity effect punishment?
The stronger the punisher is the more effective it is in
reducing an unwanted behaviour.
How does introductory level of the punisher effect punishment?
Is it better to start with the strongest intensity of a
punisher or begin with a small or weaker punisher and
build up the intensity if the behaviour continues?
Both can be problematic.
- If we build up the intensity, it can increase the threshold that the subject can withstand.
- If we start with a strong punisher we have no way of knowing the exact appropriate level.
How does reinforcement of punished behaviours effect punishment?
The association between the punished behaviour and any reinforcement must be removed
How does alternative sources of reinforcement effect punishment?
If the subject can find other ways of reinforcement (e.g. with more appropriatebehaviours) the punishment and suppression of unwanted behaviour may be more efficient
What is a motivating operation? Does it effect punishment?
Yes it does effect punishment. It is anything that changes the effectiveness of a
consequence, either in terms of increasing or
decreasing its effectiveness
What are the five theories of punishment?
- Two-prcocess theory
- One process
- Conditioned Suppression
- Avoidance theory
- Penmark’s theory
What is the two-process theory?
Punishment involves both operant and classical.