Basic Principles of Behavior8-19-13

Kelly McElrath, Ph.D,BCBA-D, LBS

kmcelrath@bucksiu.org

Malott, R. (2008) Principles of Behavior. 1

Reinforcement

(Positive Reinforcement))

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Fundamentals

• An example of Reinforcement:

“The Grandfather”

• Juke is a successful behavior analyst. • His grandfather had a stroke that paralyzed his

right side.

• After the stroke, his grandfather rarely talked, and when he did, he didn’t make much sense.

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The Grandfather, cont’d

• How did Juke’s grandmother keep track of his grandfather’s remarks?• She counted the number of times he talked• She counted the number of responses that made

sense and the ones that didn’t make sense

• What were the baseline data? • Average of less than one response per hour• 67% of his comments made sense

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The Grandfather, cont’d

• Juke’s grandmother set aside one hour per day

for a reinforcement procedure:

Before:

The grandfather

sees no smiles from

grandmother

After:

The grandfather sees smiles

from the grandmother

Behavior:

The grandfather

makes a sensible remark

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The Grandfather, cont’d

• What were the results?• In 6 weeks, spontaneous remarks increased from

less than 1 per hour to 2.5 per hour.• Sensible replies increased from 67% to 84%.

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Reinforcement

What is the Reinforcement Principle?

• Reinforcement Principle: • A response will occur more frequently if a

reinforcer or an increase in a reinforcer has followed it in the past, in similar settings.

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What is Reinforcement?

• Reinforcement Contingency:• The response-contingent • presentation of • a reinforcer, • resulting in an increased frequency of that response.

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How quickly should the reinforcer follow the response?

• Certainly…• less than 60 seconds

• Ideally…• less than 1 second

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What is the Delay Gradient?

• Delay Gradient:

• The effects of reinforcement and punishment contingencies decrease as the delay between the response and the outcome increases.

What happens if a reinforcer is delayed more than 60 seconds?

• Reinforcers delayed more than 60 seconds have little or no reinforcing effect.

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Behavioral ContingenciesWhat do we mean by response-contingent?

• Response-contingent: caused by or produced by the response

What do we mean by occasion?

• Occasion: a stimulus in the presence of which a particular response will produce a particular outcome. Not the same as the before condition.

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What is a Behavioral Contingency?

• Behavioral Contingency: • The occasion for a response, • the response, and • the outcome of the response.

Text Boxes

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The Delivery of Reinforcers Before the Behavior

• Mr. Big gives an envelope with $10,000 to a

young woman. • “Here’s $10,000 to throw the NCAA volleyball game.”• Is this Reinforcement?

NO! The money came before the despicable act, not after it.

• Is this Bribery?

YES! Bribery is the use of a reinforcer, often (but not always) given in advance, for the performance of an illegal or immoral act.

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Reinforcement or Bribery?

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Bribery

The reinforcer (“Thank you”) is coming before the behavior (doing laundry).

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Bubblegum Bowel Movements – Part 1

• 3-year old Todd was averaging one bowel movement per week

• Dawn, the behavior analyst, noticed that Todd liked his mom’s bubblegum

• What was the Procedural Solution? • Give Todd a piece of bubblegum immediately

after each bowel movement, but not before

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Successful Intervention

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Poverty’s Children – Part 1

• Mae, the behavior analyst, set up a classroom at a preschool for 15 children from low-income families (ages 4-5)

• The children scored an average of 79 on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (national average is 100).

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Poverty’s Children, cont’d

• According to National Studies…• Is poverty correlated to formal language skills?

• YES• Do terrible language skills increase the

probability of failing school?• YES

• Does this lower the chances of finding a good job?

• YES

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Observing the Children

What was the problem?• Mae’s children rarely used adjectives

• e.g., color names, sizes, shapes, or numbers• What was the solution?

• Reinforce any appropriate use of adjectives

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What were the results?• Nothing. The children produced only 3-4

adjectives per hour

• What did Mae conclude?

• The children’s baseline rate (pre-intervention rate) was too low for reinforcement to have an effect.

• Not enough occasions for reinforcement.

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Avoid Circular Reasoning

Rudolph wants the

water.

Rudolph drinks the

water.

Why does Rudolph drink

the water?

How do you know

Rudolph wants the

water?22

Use Non-Circular Explanations

Because that’s what the

thermometer says.

Because the temperature

is 120°Fin the box.

How do you know the temperature is 120°F?

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Circular argument that does not involve the reification of any concepts.

Because he’snow pressing

the lever.

In the past, lever pressing has produced drops of water.

Why is Rudolph pressing the lever?

How do you know lever pressing has produced drops of

water?

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The Error of Reification:

•To call a behavior or process a thing.

What is the Error of Reification?

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Example:

• Why does Jenny act so strangely (a behavior)? Because she has a mental illness (a thing). How do you know she has a mental illness? Because she’s acting so strangely…

• The proof of the existence of the thing is the behavior that the thing was supposed to explain.

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Medical Model Myth:

• An erroneous view of human behavior –

• that behavior is always a mere symptom of

• an underlying psychological condition.

My assistant is passive aggressive. He agrees to do the tasks I ask him to do, but

then he doesn’t do them. He’s passively aggressing against me because he doesn’t like

me.

What is the Medical Model Myth?

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Your approval is a powerful reinforcer, and it reinforces your

assistant’s agreeing to do the tasks.

But without clear-cut deadlines, even that powerful reinforcer will

fail to control your assistant’s behavior…

Without deadlines, procrastination will take over.

A More Behavioral Approach:

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Success with Behavioral Approach

• Barb Fulton measured her assistants’ task completion

What was the baseline condition?• Orally assigning tasks and not following up

when assistants do not complete the tasks.

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What was the Intervention?

• Intervention: • Holding weekly meetings where she assigned

tasks in writing, gave due dates, and checked on task completion.

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Successful Intervention

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More Examples of MedicalModel Myth

• A graduate student fails to get her homework done in time• What is the Medical Model Interpretation?

• This failure is a symptom of the underlying cause of an unconscious fear of success.

• What is the Behavioral Interpretation? • Doing almost anything else is more reinforcing

and less effortful than homework.

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Root Causes

• Medical Model…• Invents fictional causes

• Behavioral Model…• Addresses actual causes

• Example: • We don’t smoke cigarettes because we are fixated

on our oral stage of infantile development.• We smoke because smoking is reinforced by the

outcome.

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What is the Reinforce Behavior general rule?

Reinforce Behavior:

• Reinforce behavior,

• not people.

Don’t reinforce us…

Reinforce our

behavior!

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Reinforcer vs. Reinforcement

What’s the difference?• Reinforcer =

• Thing, event, or change of conditions• Reinforcement =

• The delivery of the reinforcer and the resulting change in behavior

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What is Baseline?

• Juke measured his grandfather’s sensible remarks during baseline

• Barb Fulton measured her assistants’ task completion during baseline

Baseline:

• The phase of an experiment or intervention

• where the behavior is measured

• in the absence of an intervention. 36

And another thing…

• Reinforcement occurs when the current occasion for the response…

• …is similar to occasions when the response has been reinforced in the past.

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Example:

In the past Rod’s tantrumming has been reinforced by Dad…

So when Dad’s around…

And Rod has little or no attention…

If Rod tantrums…

Rod is likely to get attention.

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And…If in the past, you worked with Rudolph the rat only when he was deprived of water…

And you used water as a reinforcer for his response of mouse clicking…

Then if you put him in the Skinner box after he has had a lot to drink…

He’s probably not going to perform very frequently.

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So an exhaustingly exhaustive re-defined definition of Reinforcement

Contingency could be…

• Reinforcement Contingency:• The presentation • Or increase of• A reinforcer• Promptly following a response• Resulting in an increased frequency of that

response• On similar occasions• And with similar motivating operations.

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Footnotes

1. Based on Green, G. R., Linsk, N. L., & Pinkston, E. M. (1986). Modification of verbal behavior of the mentally impaired elderly by their spouses. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 19, 329-336.

2. Based on Tomlinson, J. R. (1970). Bowel retention. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 2, 83-85.

3. Based on Hart, B. M., & Risley, T. R. (1968). Establishing use of descriptive adjectives in the spontaneous speech of disadvantaged preschool children. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1, 109-120.

4. Fulton, B. J., & Malott, R. W. (1981-1982). The structured meeting system: A procedure for improving the completion of nonrecurring tasks. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 3(4), 7-18.

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