In Unit 3, we covered the basics of operant conditioning and classical conditioning.

The basic premise of operant conditioning is that behavior can be increased or decreased following the presentation of a consequence.

While it seems like a very simple concept, the effectiveness of operant conditioning procedures can be affected by many different factors.

In Unit 4, we will look at some special issues related to the effectiveness and performance of reinforcers in changing behavior.

The rate and timing of how the reinforcement is delivered can greatly affect how behavior is changed.

This is called a reinforcement contingency and is used frequently in ABA practice.

Finally, we will look at extinction of behavior.

Extinction often occurs when a pleasant consequence of a specific event no longer happens.

For example, if Mary receives a paycheck every week for working, she will likely continue to work.

However, if the payment stops, Mary would likely stop working.

Potential extinction of a desired behavior can be an issue when designing an effective program of behavior modification.

Sometimes, however, an ABA therapist might wish to extinguish an undesired behavior; this might involve figuring out if the undesired behavior is inadvertently being reinforced and then stopping that reinforcement.

Reading: The reading for this week will cover specialized topics in operant conditioning, including reinforcement contingencies and how these work to increase behavior as well as concepts of stimulus control and extinction of behavior.

Reading Assignment Read the following selections in your

textbook, Applied Behavior Analysis:  pp. 304-323, which cover schedules of

reinforcement and contingencies pp. 392-408, which are about issues

surrounding stimulus control pp. 456-467, which explore extinction

Discussion: Our discussion for this week will focus on understanding how to use different reinforcement contingencies to produce changes in behavior as well as how to use non-punishment procedures to decrease behavior (extinction).

Project: The project for this unit will provide you with practice in applying the principles of operant and classical conditioning to hypothetical case studies.

For this project, you will analyze case study questions using the concepts covered in this course.

While you should rely primarily on the textbook readings, you also may use other Internet research should you choose.

The total project should be between 2-4 pages in 12 point font.

Please be sure to use proper APA format for all of your sources.

Direct quoting of sources should be kept to a minimum.

For more information on citing sources, refer to the APA Quick Reference on the Course Home Page or to the Kaplan Writing Center.

Case Study 1: Bobby Bobby's room is in a constant state of disarray. His father,

Mr. Kelley, would like to increase his son Bobby's frequency of cleaning his room. A behavior modification program incorporating the concept of operant conditioning will be used to address this problem. Please answer the following questions:

Identify the target behavior and describe that behavior in 1 or 2 sentences.

Define operant conditioning and discuss how this method works to increase desired behavior.

Define positive reinforcement. What issues are involved in the selection of appropriate and effective reinforcement?

Choose two possible schedules of reinforcement discussed in the text and explain how you would implement each schedule as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each schedule selected.

Case Study 2: Jackie Jackie has been afraid of dogs since she was a toddler.

When she was three years old, she was playing in her front yard when a neighbor's dog came up to her and bit her hand. The bite required a trip to the pediatrician and several stitches. Twenty years later, she can remember every detail of the event. Now when she sees dogs or one comes near her, her heart pounds and she feels sick to her stomach. Normally, she could simply avoid dogs, but she is getting married to a dog breeder in six months. Jackie is coming to you for help with her fear of dogs.

Discuss one behavioral theory that could explain why Jackie has remained fearful of dogs.

What kind of behavioral modification program can be designed for Jackie so that she does not experience fear when seeing dogs?

Case Study: Emma Emma is 4 years old and refuses to clean up her toys

after playing. Her parents have tried many different strategies, including rewarding her after cleaning, and giving her a time-out when she doesn't listen. Often what happens is that Emma gets angry when it is clean-up time and throws a tantrum. She yells and screams and sometimes even throws her toys, creating a bigger mess. Her parents feel that the only way to stop the tantrum is to pick her up and then clean up for her.

Discuss the principles of operant conditioning that are underlying Emma's behavior.

Describe how you could apply operant conditioning theory to create a behavior medication to address Emma's behavior.

Explain how the concept of extinction of behavior could be applied in this case.

Submitting your Project Put your project in a Word document. Save it in a location and

with a name that you will remember. When you are ready to submit it, click on the Dropbox and complete the steps below:

Click the link that says 'Submit an Assignment'. In the 'Submit to Basket' menu, select Unit 4: Project In the 'Comments' field, include at least the title of your paper. Click the 'Add Attachments' button. Follow the steps listed to attach your Word document. To view your graded work, come back to the Dropbox or go to

the Gradebook after your instructor has evaluated it. Make sure that you save a copy of your submitted assignment.

Seminar Discussion: The seminar will cover how reinforcement contingencies can increase desired behaviors.

We'll also discuss the concepts of stimulus control and generalization.

Once a conditioned stimulus is able to trigger a conditioned response, stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus will also trigger some version of that response, called stimulus generalization.

Stimulus Generalization – A process in which a conditioned response is triggered by stimuli similar to the original conditioned stimulus.

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Generalization occurs when there is a small difference in the presented stimulus and the original conditioned stimulus.

If Pavlov’s dog heard a bell of a similar tone, the dog would still salivate.

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Stimulus generalization is usually balanced by a process called stimulus discrimination.

Stimulus Discrimination – A process through which people learn to differentiate among similar stimuli and respond appropriately to each one.

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Discrimination, the opposite of generalization, discrimination happens when a conditioned response does not occur when there is a difference between the presented stimulus and the original conditioned stimulus.

If Pavlov’s dog heard a bell with a different tone and was not awarded the unconditioned stimulus (food), the dog would learn not to salivate to the second tone.

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Behavior is not necessarily going to be reinforced every time it occurs

In real life, behavior is not often reinforced each time it occurred

A reinforcement schedule is a rule stating which instances of behavior, if any, will be reinforced

Intermittent reinforcement refers to reinforcement that is not administered to each instance of a response

In a continuous reinforcement schedule, reinforcers follow every time the response occurs.

In a partial, or intermittent reinforcement schedule, reinforcement occurs only part of the time.

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Fixed-ratio (FR) schedules provide reinforcement only after a fixed number of responses or behaviors.

Example: In a factory, workers may be paid $1 for every five items produced.

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Variable-ratio (VR) schedules give reinforcers after a certain number of responses, but number varies.

Example: If you keep putting quarters into a slot machine until you win, sometimes it takes twenty quarters before a payoff, sometimes sixty, sometimes ten.

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Fixed-interval (FI) schedules give reinforcement for the first response after a fixed time has elapsed since the last reinforcer.

Example: Coming to work on Friday results in receiving a paycheck for work completed during the interval of a week.

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Variable-interval (VI) schedules reinforce the first response after some period of time, but the amount of time varies unpredictably.

Example: If a friend wants to reinforce your studying behavior on a VI schedule, she may come to your room and give you a chocolate if you are studying, after ten minutes, then after thirty minutes, then after eighteen minutes, and so on.

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Francis sells jewelry to a local gift shop. Each time he completes 10 pairs of earrings, the shopkeeper pays him for them.

Sandra’s mail is delivered every day at 10:00. She checks her mailbox several times each morning, but only finds mail the first time she checks after 10:00.

Vernon is practicing his golf putting. On the average, it takes him four tries before the ball goes in the hole.

Paula is an eager third-grader, and loves to be called on by her teacher. Her teacher calls on her approximately once each period, although Paula is never sure when her turn will come.