Stimulus control

Question 1

Why is context important?

Answer 1

It shapes our behaviour

Question 2

What does context as occasion-setting mean?

Answer 2

Environmental conditions/cues that establish the context in which a specific behaviour is more likely to occur

Question 3

What are antecedent stimuli?

Answer 3

Environmental cues/signals/conditions present before a behaviour occurs

Question 4

What are internal antecedents?

Answer 4

Internal states that modify our behaviour, e.g., hungry, bored

Question 5

What are the three cues that signal the availability of a reward/punishment?

Answer 5

1. Certain/setting events that are environmental, contextual, or the context that will modify for influence the behaviour but they are not signalling the reward/punishment
2. Motivational/establishing operators increase the effecitveness of the reward
3. Abolishing operators are the opposite

Question 6

When is a behaviour under stimulus control?

Answer 6

When there is an increased probability that the behaviour will occur in the presence of a specific antecedent stimulus

Question 7

What is a discriminative stimulus?

Answer 7

The antecedent stimulus that is present when a behaviour is reinforced - the stimulus which signals the availability of reinforcers

Question 8

What is stimulus delta?

Answer 8

Stimulus in the presence of which a behaviour is not reinforced - signals that the reinforcer will not be available

Question 9

What happens in discrimination training?

Answer 9

Responses that occur in the presence of the discriminative stimulus are reinforced, while responses that occur in the presence of stimulus delta are not reinforced

Question 10

What is excitatory and inhibitory strength according to Spence (1936) in discrimination training?

Answer 10

Excitatory strength is increased when a response to a specific stimulus is reinforced.
Inhibition strength is increased when a response to a specific stimulus is not reinforced.

Question 11

What are the 4 four points that suggest stimulus control is in effect?

Answer 11

1. Person responds to the disrcriminative stimulus promptly every time it’s given.
2. Don’t get the behaviour in the absence of the discriminative stimulus.
3. Don’t see the behaviour in response to some other discriminative stimulus.
4. Don’t get some other behaviour in response to the discriminative stimulus.

Question 12

What are prompts?

Answer 12

Supplementary stimuli given before or during the performance of a behaviour, that increases the likelihood that the person will engage in the correct behaviour at the correct time

Question 13

Why do we need prompts?

Answer 13

Not all operant behaviours are triggered naturally by the discriminative stimulus

Question 14

What is the difference between classical and operant conditioning?

Answer 14

Classical - trigger a natural reflex, e.g., Pavlov.
Operant - learn to behaviour in a specific way

Question 15

Are prompts antecedents?

Answer 15

Yes

Question 16

What are the two types of prompts?

Answer 16

Response prompts and stimulus prompts

Question 17

What are response prompts?

Answer 17

Involve acting/aiding directly with behaviour - any prompt that is provided as a supplement to the discriminative stimulus and the target is to induce the target behaviour

Question 18

What are the types of response prompts?

Answer 18

Verbal prompts, modelling, physical guidance

Question 19

What are verbal prompts?

Answer 19

Give verbal instruction to aid/supplement the discriminative stimulus

Question 20

What is modelling?

Answer 20

You model the target behaviour

Question 21

What is physical guidance?

Answer 21

Physically move the participants to show them how to do the behaviour

Question 22

What are stimulus prompts?

Answer 22

Involve supplementing the stimulus itself - might involve a change in the discriminative stimulus or the stimulus delta that makes the discriminative stimulus more salient and stimulus delta less salient

Question 23

What are the types of stimulus prompts?

Answer 23

Movement, position and redundancy prompts

Question 24

What are movement prompts?

Answer 24

Make the disrcriminative stimulus more salient, e.g., move correct stimulus closer to participant

Question 25

What are position prompts?

Answer 25

Modify the position of the correct stimulus to be closer to the participant

Question 26

What are redundancy prompts?

Answer 26

Modifying an aspect of the stimulus, e.g., make discriminative stimulus bigger

Question 27

What is prompt fading?

Answer 27

A way to transfer stimulus control from the prompts to the discriminative stimulus

Question 28

What are the types of prompt fading techniques?

Answer 28

Most-to-least prompting, least-to-most prompting, time delay

Question 29

What is most-to-least prompting?

Answer 29

Start with the most help and little by little withdraw the help

Question 30

What is least-to-most prompting?

Answer 30

Start with helping with the minimum and if they can’t perform the behaviour, increase the assistance until they can

Question 31

What is time delay?

Answer 31

Progressively increase the time delay between the discriminative stimulus and the prompt until they don’t need the prompt any more

Question 32

What are some things to remember when choosing prompt/fading techniques?

Answer 32

Each learner is unique, learners perform better when using procedures they’ve been exposed to before, choose a prompt that facilitates fading, less intrusive procedure possible

Question 33

What is discrimination training?

Answer 33

A process in which an individual/organism learns to respond differently to two or more stimuli