Reinforcement, punishment, and extinction

Question 1

What is positive reinforcement not synonymous with?

Answer 1

Reward: reward is defined by consensus, whereas reinforcers are defined by their ability to change behaviour

Question 2

How did Joel Greenspoon distinguish reward from reinforcer?

Answer 2

Found that saying “mhmm” after a plural noun when children were asked to list words increased the rate of plural nouns.

Question 3

What are contrived reinforcers?

Answer 3

Arranged by human being for the purpose of modifying behaviour

Question 4

What are natural reinforcers?

Answer 4

Not arranged by someone; are more spontaneous, unplanned; intrinsically reinforcing

Question 5

What are primary reinforcers?

Answer 5

Reinforcers that are not dependent on their associations with other reinforcers.
Environmental stimuli linked to basic needs.

Question 6

What are secondary reinforcers?

Answer 6

Reinforcers that are dependent on their association with other reinforcers; depend on learning.
E.g., money, clicker training in dogs

Question 7

Are primary or secondary reinforcers more effective?

Answer 7

Secondary tend to produce longer-lasting effects

Question 8

What did Allen et al. (1974) show regarding Ann’s behaviour, who found adult company reinforcing?

Answer 8

ABAB reversal design. Showed little interaction with children but found adults reinforcing. Intervention where teachers only gave her attention when interacting with children was not very useful. But when using a toy in the child’s game play as a reinforcer for interacting with the children this had stronger effects.

Question 9

What are the 4 rules for reinforcement?

Answer 9

Define, select, make, monitor

Question 10

What is important in the selection of reinforcers?

Answer 10

You want positive reinforcers as negative reinforcers can be problematic.
Secondary reinforcers tend to have longer-lasting effects.
Contacting the naturally reinforcing effects of the behaviour will make the behaviour last longer.

Question 11

What are the two important points in “make”?

Answer 11

Immediate: closer in time the reinforcer is to target behaviour, the more effective it will be; avoids confusion of what is being reinforced.
Certain: increase the likelihood that the reinforcer will follow the behaviour.

Question 12

What are 4 problems with reinforcement?

Answer 12

Bootleg reinforcement; reliance on reinforcement; behaviour contrast; inappropriate use.

Question 13

What is bootleg reinforcement?

Answer 13

Reinforcement that is not part of and intends to undermine an intervention; comes from someone that is not you.

Question 14

How did Alice Dickinson demonstrate non-reliance on reinforcement? And how/why was reliance avoided?

Answer 14

Students who underwent a reward scheme continued to perform well even when it was removed. Jumped from contrived to natural reinforcers (when they started to get good grades this naturally reinforced behaviour over the reward scheme).

Question 15

What is behaviour contrast?

Answer 15

A reinforcer used in one particular context may not work in another.

Question 16

What is extinction?

Answer 16

Withholding the reinforcers that maintain a target (operant) behaviour.

Question 17

Describe France & Hudson’s (1990) extinction study.

Answer 17

Multiple baseline. Children waking up frequently in the night. Families were instructed not to enter the room when the child awoke, assuming that attention was reinforcing and maintaining the behaviour. After extinction, the night waking reduced to 0.

Question 18

What are two ethical considerations of France & Hudson (1990)?

Answer 18

Attachment theory: lack of attention could affect the parent-child relationship and have negative later outcomes.
But how is the parent-child relationship affected by the family’s lack of sleep?

Question 19

What are the 4 rules for extinction?

Answer 19

Define, identify (reinforcers), withhold (reinforcers; every time); monitor

Question 20

What is partial reinforcement and what effect can it have?

Answer 20

Occasional reinforcements can actually maintain behaviour at higher rates which can make the behaviour harder to eliminate. Increased resistance to extinction following partial/intermittent reinforcement.

Question 21

What are 4 problems with extinction?

Answer 21

Uncontrolled reinforcement; it can be slow; extinction bursts; spontaneous recovery.

Question 22

What is uncontrolled reinforcement?

Answer 22

Reinforcement can come from somewhere else or the behaviour might be naturally reinforcing.

Question 23

When is the problem that extinction is slow particularly important?

Answer 23

When the target behaviour is severe – could lead to severe damage at the end of the extinction procedure.

Question 24

What are extinction bursts?

Answer 24

Long-term effect of extinction is decrease in behaviour, but immediate effect might be a sudden increase.

Question 25

What is spontaneous recovery? When is it a problem?

Answer 25

Sudden return of behaviour later. Only a problem if it is reinforced in the way that it was reinforced prior to the extinction procedure.

Question 26

What is differential reinforcement?

Answer 26

Any procedure that combined reinforcement and extinction to change the frequency of a target behaviour.

Question 27

What is differential reinforcement of low rate?

Answer 27

Behaviour occurs to often so we provide reinforcement when the behaviour occurs less often, and extinction when it occurs at a higher rate.

Question 28

What is differential reinforcement of alternate behaviour?

Answer 28

Put target behaviour under extinction and provide the reinforcers available to that behaviour to another more acceptable behaviour.

Question 29

What is differential reinforcement of incompatible behaviour?

Answer 29

Put target behaviour under extinction and provide the reinforcers available to that behaviour to one that is incompatible with it. The two behaviours cannot occur at the same time.

Question 30

How did Rekers & Lovaas (1974) use differential reinforcement to reduce inappropriate gender role behaviour?

Answer 30

Used DRI. Put female behaviours on extinction by having mother ignore Craig for these; reinforced masculine behaviours by having mother give him attention.

Question 31

What are the 4 rules for differential reinforcement?

Answer 31

Define (behaviour to extinguish and behaviour to increase).
Extinguish (undesirable behaviour).
Reinforce (desirable behaviour)
Monitor.

Question 32

What is the hierarchy of punishers used in ABA? (5 types)

Answer 32

Reprimanding, response cost, time out, over-correction, physical punishment.

Question 33

What is reprimanding?

Answer 33

Expressions of disapproval, usually verbally. E.g., sarcasm, rhetoric, corrective feedback.

Question 34

Why is reprimanding not always effective?

Answer 34

It can be a form of attention, which may function to reinforce behaviour.

Question 35

What did White discover about teachers’ use of reprimanding?

Answer 35

They reprimand children twice as much as they praise them.

Question 36

What is response cost?

Answer 36

The behaviour costs you something. E.g., detention.

Question 37

What is time out short for and what does it involve?

Answer 37

Time out from positive reinforcement. Removes access to all reinforcers; makes removal of a person from a reinforcing situation contingent on the target behaviour. Children not told off/lectured - no added punsihment.

Question 38

What is over correction?

Answer 38

Reduce the frequency of the target behaviour by making restitution for damage done and repeated performance of appropriate behaviour contingent on the target behaviour.

Question 39

What are the 2 elements of over correction?

Answer 39

Restitution for damage done and repetition of the correct behaviour a number of times.

Question 40

What is physical punishment?

Answer 40

Reducing the frequency of the target behaviour by making brief and non-injurious contact on the skin contingent on target behaviour.

Question 41

How did Dorsey et al. (1980) use punishment to treat self-injurious behaviour? And how was this extended?

Answer 41

Fine mist of water spray applied to the face of someone with profound intellectual disabilities contingent on self-injurious behaviours.
Combined the spray with the word “No” and found that “No” became a conditioned reinforcer.

Question 42

What are the 5 rules for punishment?

Answer 42

Define (thing you want to reduce and thing you want to increase).
Select (appropriate punishers - want to avoid harsh punishers).
Make (punishment immediate and certain).
Use (extinction and differential reinforcement).
Monitor.

Question 43

Why do you use extinction and reinforcement during punishment?

Answer 43

Punishment only teachers what not to do, not what to do.
A dysfunctional behaviour must be paying off in some way (i.e., there is reinforcement) - just punishing the behaviour doesn’t remove the reinforcement, so as soon as the punisher is removed the reinforcer will start to create the behaviour again.

Question 44

What are 2 problems with punishment?

Answer 44

Negative side effects and inappropriate use.

Question 45

What are the negative side effects of punishment?

Answer 45

Produces undesirable emotional reactions (fear, anger) - means the person providing the punishment can become a conditioned stimulus and feared; can cause the individual to be angry/aggressive towards them; and when the punisher backs off the person that did the attacking is reinforced, and so continue to do it every time they receive the punisher.
Imitation - if you see someone getting what they want through being aggressive, you are likely to do that yourself.

Question 46

What does are the practices of the Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton, Massachusetts?

Answer 46

Uses graduated electronic decelerators (GED) to deliver extremely powerful electric skin shocks as a form of aversive behaviour control to students with developmental disabilities.