Reinforcement, Extinction and Punishment Flashcards
How does negative reinforcement strengthen behaviour
Wanting to avoid undesirable outcome
Why are reinforcements not the same as rewards?
Rewards doesn’t necessarily change behaviour
What are primary reinforcers?
Reinforcers not dependent on association with other reinforcers
What are secondary reinforcers
Reinforcers that are dependent on association with other reinforcers (e.g money)
What are contrived reinforcers
Arranged by someone to change behaviour
What are natural reinforcers?
Not purposely arranged by someone to change behaviour
How did Allen et al demonstrate reinforcement with Ann? What was the design and reinforcer?
Design; ABAB
Reinforcer; Attention (initially) and then toy
Given attention by adults if she interacted with other children
What are the four steps to reinforcement?
Define - target behaviour
Select - appropriate reinforcers
Make - reinforcers immediate and certain (high likelihood of it happening)
Monitor - the results
Which type of reinforcer is better and why?
Primary and natural, longer lasting effects.
What happens if reinforcer is not immediate?
Allows other behaviours to occur
What should you make sure the reinforcer is, in relation to the target behaviour
Contingent on the target behaviour and ONLY the target behaviour
What is bootleg reinforcement?
Reinforcements coming from someone else other than you
What is behavioural contrast?
Behaviour doesn’t transfer to other contexts
What are the problems with reinforcement?
Bootleg reinforcement, behavioural contrast, inappropriate use, reliance on reinforcement
What does extinction prevent?
The consequences of a behaviour that maintain it
How was extinction used by France and Hudson for waking children? what was the design?
Multiple baseline design
Told families to not enter room when child wakes at night
wake up times reduced to 0
What is the issue with the use of extinction in reducing children waking up at night in France and Hudson’s study?
Could affect their attachment style - teaching parent will ignore them if crying out
What are the 4 steps for extinction?
Define - the target behavour
Identify - the reinforcers that maintain the behaviour
Withhold - all reinforcement from target behaviour
Monitor - the results
What are the difficulties with extinction
Difficult to gage reinforcers; need to observe and figure out
Difficult to control; multiple reinforcers, occasional reinforcers, natural reinforcers, need to withhold it everytime without fail
Slow; which can make people give up and can be damaging for the person
Extinction bursts; sudden increase in behaviour but followed by decrease
Sudden recovery; target behaviour reappears
what is differential reinforcement
The combination of extinction and reinforcement to change freq. of behaviour
What are the 3 types of differential reinforcement
Differential Reinforcement of Low Rate (DRL), Differential Reinforcement of Alternative Rate (DRA), Differential Reinforcement of Incompatible behaviour (DRI)
What is Differential Reinforcement of Low Rate (DRL)
Dealing with problem behaviour where it occurs too often so provide reinforcement where behaviour occurs less often
What is Differential Reinforcement of Alternate behaviour (DRA)
Taking the reinforcement from an undesirable behaviour (extinction) and using that same reinforcer on the desirable behaviour.
What is Differential Reinforcement of Incompatible behaviour (DRI)
Similar to DRA but used on behaviour that is incompatible with the target behaviour (e.g reinforcing not screaming because you cannot scream and not scream at the same time)
How did Rekers and Lovaas use DR on gender role behaviour in a 5 year old?
Parent ignored child when engaging in feminine behaviour and gave attention when engaging in masculine behaviour
What are the 4 stages of DR?
Define - The target behaviour
Extinguish - the undesirable behaviour
Reinforce - the desirable behaviour
Monitor - the results
What makes something not a punisher?
If it doesn’t REDUCE the rate of behaviour
What are 5 examples of punishments? list them from low to high severity
Reprimanding, time out, response cost, overcorrection, physical punishment
What can happen if you start out with too low of a punishment?
They person will get used to it
What is reprimanding?
Expressing disapproval. Can include corrective feedback. Most frequent form
What is the issue of reprimanding?
Can serve as attention so could be a reinforcer
What is response cost
Price to pay for behaviour
What is time out?
‘Time out from positive reinforcement’ - removing the person from the situation of reinforcement of target behaviour
What are the two parts of overcorrection
Part 1: Restitution for damage done
Part 2: Repeating correct behaviour a certain number of times
How has punishment been controversially used by Dorsey et al?
Water spray to the face of someone with profound intellectual disabilities for self-injurious behaviours. Also combined with the word ‘no’
What are the 4 steps for punishment
Define: The target behaviour
Select: the appropriate punishment
Make: Punishment immediate and certain
Use: Extinction and Differential reinforcement
Monitor: the results
Why shouldn’t you use just punishment?
Just teaches what not to do instead of alternative behaviours
What are the issues with punishment
Inappropriate use and negative side effects
What could be negative side effects of punishment
Fear, anger, anxiety.
Aggression causes punisher to stop = aggression is reinforcing = Punished uses punishment inappropriately later in life
