NOTES FOR FINAL EXAM BEGIN HERE Chapter 6: Aversive Regulation of Behavior - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 / 101
About This Presentation
Title:

NOTES FOR FINAL EXAM BEGIN HERE Chapter 6: Aversive Regulation of Behavior

Description:

... Sd when it sets the occasion for driving to the Burger King (an operant behavior) ... (like following directions or recipes, etc.), the consequence ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:231
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 102
Provided by: facultyC5
Category:

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: NOTES FOR FINAL EXAM BEGIN HERE Chapter 6: Aversive Regulation of Behavior


1
NOTES FOR FINAL EXAM BEGIN HEREChapter
6Aversive Regulation of Behavior
2
Classes of Reinforcing and Punishing Stimuli
3
Contingencies of Punishment
  • Positive punishment occurs when a stimulus is
    presented following an operant and the rate of
    response decreases. ex. Spanking
  • Negative punishment occurs when a stimulus is
    removed contingent on a response occurring and
    the rate of response decreases. ex. Response cost
    timeout.

4
Contingencies of Punishment
  • Premack principle states that the opportunity to
    engage in a higher frequency behavior will
    reinforce a lower frequency response.
  • Likewise, opportunity to engage in a LOWER
    frequency behavior will PUNISH a HIGHER frequency
    response.

5
Reinforcement and Punishment
  • All things being equal, most people respond
    better to both immediate reinforcement and
    immediate punishment. (They learn the
    contingencies easier this way).
  • Most punishments in American society are given
    for behaviors that are immediately reinforcing,
    (drug use) while the threat of the punishments
    for these deeds is delayed and uncertain.

6
Reinforcement and Punishment
  • Punishment, by itself, tends to be ineffective
    except for temporarily suppressing undesirable
    behavior. Only very severe punishment can produce
    long-term suppression of behavior
  • Mild, logical and consistent punishment can be
    informative and helpful as FEEDBACK

7
Effectiveness of Punishment
  • Azrin and Holz 1966
  • Manner of introduction
  • Immediacy of punishment
  • Schedule of punishment
  • Schedule of reinforcement
  • Motivational variables
  • Availability of other reinforcers
  • Punisher as discriminative stimulus

8
Making Punishment Most Effective
  • Intensity of punishment
  • Immediacy of punishment
  • Punishment is most effective at reducing
    responses when it is presented shortly after the
    behavior
  • Schedule of punishment
  • Punishment delivered continuously is more
    effective versus intermittently. As the rate of
    punishment increases the response decreases.

9
If using punishment
  • If you are punishing a specific behavior, the
    reinforcement for that behavior should be
    discontinued, or at least reduced or made
    available contingent upon some other appropriate
    behavior.
  • Punishment only teaches one thing What NOT to
    do. What kind of teacher would only try to teach
    by just saying No!?

10
Motivation and Punishment
  • When motivation is reduced the punishment is most
    effective.
  • Behavior may be completely suppressed when the
    motivation to respond is low.
  • Research suggests when motivation is increased
    after punishment, responding will not recover to
    prepunishment levels.

11
Types of Negative Reinforcement
  • Escape
  • Avoidance
  • Discriminated avoidance
  • Non-discriminated avoidance

12
Escape vs. Avoidance
  • Negative reinforcement occurs whenever an operant
    results in the removal (ESCAPE) or prevention
    (AVOIDANCE) of a stimulus and the operant
    subsequently increases in rate
  • In general, people learn to escape before
    avoidance
  • Escape responding is reactive, it is acquired
    more readily than avoidance responding.
  • Avoidance responding is proactive and will only
    be acquired after a history of escape.
  • Avoidance responses are VERY resistant to
    extinction. Why?

13
Types of Avoidance
  • If a warning signal precedes the aversive
    stimulus and a response during this warning
    stimulus prevents the aversive stimulus delivery,
    this constitutes discriminated avoidance.
  • Discriminated avoidance can be very difficult to
    acquire, as the warning stimulus comes to be a CS
    that will elicit respondents that can interfere
    with the avoidance.

14
Nondiscriminated Avoidance
  • If no warning stimulus precedes the aversive
    stimulus which itself occurs periodically, this
    constitutes nondiscriminated avoidance.
  • Many behaviors of clinical interest are avoidance
    responses (ANXIETY DISORDERS)

15
What maintains avoidance responding
  • After an avoidance response, nothing happens, so
    why is it maintained?
  • Two factor theory
  • Respondent Conditioning warning stimulus (CS)
    acquires aversive effects and elicits fear (CR)
  • Operant Conditioning running away during the
    warning stimulus reduction of fear (running
    away is a negatively reinforced operant
    behavior!)
  • Extinction of Avoidance
  • avoidance responses are very resistant to
    extinction because YOU NEVER FACE THE CS AND
    EXPERIENCE IT WITHOUT THE US!

16
Reasons to not use punishment
  • Since punishment can be so effective, it is
    reinforcing for the user, and the user can come
    to rely on it too much.
  • Some critics argue that using punishment in any
    form will always lead to the person becoming
    abusive (but this argument has no empirical
    support)

17
Reasons to not use punishment
  • Seligman
  • Repeated exposure to unpredictable and
    uncontrollable aversive events can have
    debilitating effects learned helplessness and
    depression.
  • Other emotional behavior occurs in response to
    punishment pain-elicited aggression and
    counterattack, (person who delivers punishment is
    feared)

18
Learned helplessness
  • Person experiences learned helplessness when it
    is exposed to an aversive stimulus and unable to
    escape.
  • After several pairings of this condition, person
    gives up and stops attempting to escape.
  • When given the opportunity to escape, learned
    helplessness is demonstrated by not attempting to
    escape.

19
Helplessness and Depression
  • Helplessness is involved with and is a model for
    depression. Depression may arise when a person
    feels inescapable of abuse.
  • Helpless dogs (have previously learned
    helplessness) which are forced to make a response
    that escapes shock begin to make that response on
    their own. Depressed individuals may go through
    treatment in which they are not allowed to fail.
  • In this situation, the person may learn to emit
    appropriate responses in the presence of aversive
    events

20
Aggression
  • Respondent aggression occurs when painful stimuli
    are presented to two organisms and the organisms
    attack each other. This may also be known as
    pain-elicited aggression. The probability of
    aggression increased as more and more shocks were
    presented. This result of aggression to aversive
    stimuli applies to humans

21
Operant Aggression
  • When one person punishes anothers behavior, the
    punished individual may retaliate, a strategy
    known as operant aggression
  • One way to escape aversive stimulation is to
    eliminate/neutralize the person who is delivering
    it
  • Operant aggression is shaped and maintained
    through negative reinforcement

22
Social Disruption
  • When punishment is used to decrease behavior, the
    attempt is usually made to stop a particular
    response
  • Hopefully unpunished behavior is not affected,
    but two factors work against this
  • The person delivering the punishment
  • The Setting
  • Both become conditioned aversive stimuli (Save)
  • This negative side effect is known as Social
    Disruption
  • Also, a social agent who frequently uses
    punishment becomes a conditioned punishing
    stimulus, whose presence can disrupt all ongoing
    operant behavior

23
Coercion and its Fallout
  • Murray Sidman, a prominent behavior analyst, has
    researched the social disruptive effects of
    aversive control
  • Coercion Use of punishment and the threat of
    punishment to get others to act as we would like,
    and to our practice of rewarding people just by
    letting them escape from our punishments and
    threats
  • Involves the basic contingencies of punishment
    and negative reinforcement

24
Coercion and its Fallout
  • Dropping out is an escape contingency, and a
    major social problem
  • People drop out of education, family, personal
    and community responsibility, citizenship,
    society, and even life
  • Sidman notes the common element b/w these forms
    of conduct is negative reinforcement
  • Once involved in an aversive situation, a person
    can get out by removing themselves from the
    situation, thus strengthening the behavior of
    dropping out

25
Chapter 7Part 1 Operant-Respondent
Interrelationships and Part 2 the Biological
Context of Conditioning
26
Analysis of Operant/Respondent Interactions
  • Respondent procedures are often embedded in the
    arrangement of operant contingencies.
  • Think of 2-factor theory of phobias
  • What signals the appearance of the feared
    stimulus is a CS for fear (CR) as well as an Sd
    for avoidance (negatively reinforced operant
    behavior)
  • Think about commercials the sight of a Whopper
    is a CS when it elicits hunger pangs (CR) but it
    is also an Sd when it sets the occasion for
    driving to the Burger King (an operant behavior)

27
Sign Tracking
  • Sign Tracking- refers to approaching a sign that
    signals a biologically relevant event
  • also referred to as autoshaping because of the
    elicited approach and subsequent manipulation of
    the sign stimulus.
  • How it works A pigeon typically approaches a lit
    key that precedes food delivery. The bird makes
    pecking movements at the key and eventually pecks
    the key itself. If food is then delivered, the
    elicited peck can be operantly reinforced. The
    peck comes to be more of an operant than an
    elicited response.

28
Sign Tracking in Humans?
  • Kens silly theory when we are attracted to
    another, we tend to approach them (elicited
    behavior) but, over time, the other person may
    reinforce our approach behavior with kind words,
    jokes, hugs, kisses, companionship, etc. and this
    approach behavior becomes operantly conditioned
    as well.

29
Operant Contingencies and Regulation of Behavior
  • Can we reinforce reflexive behavior?
  • Water deprived dogs reinforced for increasing
    saliva flow showed an increase and dogs
    reinforced for less saliva showed a decrease
    (Miller and Carmona, 1967).

30
Operant Control ofRespondent Behavior
  • Obviously we can come to exert voluntary
    control over our reflexes or we couldnt become
    toilet trained (duh!)
  • Various reflexes can be controlled by operant
    reinforcement contingent upon occurrences of the
    response (although these two processes are often
    fighting it out)
  • Biofeedback demonstrates that such control can be
    acquired by everyday people in the real world

31
Biological Context of Conditioning
  • principles of learning can be considered
    universal principles throughout animal kingdom.
  • From species to species, though, some differences
    occur
  • This does not invalidate behavioral principles
    but tells us that an organisms physiology and
    evolutionary history must be taken into
    consideration in conducting and evaluating
    learning studies
  • That is, different species have different
    evolutionarily prepared responses BUT ALL CAN
    LEARN!

32
Taste Aversion Learning
  • Garcia and Koelling (1966)
  • Group 1 rats drank sweet flavored water
  • Group 2 rats drank unflavored water accompanied
    by lights and noises (bright-noisy water)
  • After the rats drank the water, one half of each
    group was given electric shock for drinking
  • 1) Flavored water (CS) ---------gt Shock (US)
  • 2) Bright, noisy water (CS) ---gt Shock (US)

33
  • Garcia and Koelling (1966)
  • The other animals were made ill by injecting them
    with lithium chloride or by irradiating them with
    X rays
  • 3) Flavored water (CS) --------gt LiCl/X rays
    (US)
  • 4) Bright, noisy water (CS) ---gt LiCl/X rays
    (US)
  • WHO STOPPED DRINKING?
  • rats that received shock after drinking the
    bright-noisy water and the ones that were made
    sick after ingesting the flavored water
    substantially reduced their fluid intake
  • Water intake in the other two groups was
    virtually unaffected (Animals made sick after
    drinking bright-noisy water and shocked after
    drinking flavored water did not show a
    conditioned aversion) WHY?

34
Implications Garcia and Koelling (1966)
  • During traditional respondent conditioning, the
    CS and US typically overlap or are separated by
    only a few seconds
  • BUT In Garcia and Koellings experiment, the
    taste CS was followed much later by the US (drug
    or X ray)
  • We often assume that choice of CS and US is
    irrelevant for respondent conditioning
  • BUT Taste and grastrointestinal nausea produced
    aversion, but taste and shock did not condition
  • Sofor some stimuli, the animal is GENETICALLY
    prepared to make a connection, and for others
    they may even be contra-prepared
  • Typically, many CS-US pairings are required to
    learn, but aversion to taste often occurs after a
    single pairing of flavor-illness

35
Conditioned taste aversion in humans
  • Humans more likely to develop aversion to tastes
    and smells than sights and sounds, even when we
    know it wasnt the food that made us ill (sauce
    dbearnaise effect).
  • Humans on chemotherapy can develop anticipatory
    nausea and vomiting (ANV) to the sight of a
    doctor, a clinic, the day of chemotherapy, among
    other stimuli. (All of these are CSs for the
    internal nauseating effects of the chemotherapy
    (US)

36
Chapter 9Choice and Preference
37
Choice vs. Preference
  • From a behavioral view, the analysis of choice is
    concerned with the distribution of operant
    behavior among alternative sources of
    reinforcement
  • When several choices are available, one
    alternative may be chosen more frequently than
    others. When this occurs, it is called
    preference for an alternative source of
    reinforcement
  • For example, a person may choose between two food
    markets (a large supermarket and the corner
    store) on the basis of price, location, and
    variety
  • Each time the individual goes to one store rather
    than the other, he or she is said to choose

38
Concurrent Schedules
  • In the laboratory, choice and preference are
    investigated by arranging concurrent schedules of
    reinforcement
  • Two or more simple schedules (FR, VR, FI, or VI)
    simultaneously available on different response
    keys
  • Each key is associated with a separate schedule
    of reinforcement, and organism is free to
    distribute behavior between alternative schedules
  • distribution of time and behavior among
    alternatives is behavioral measure of choice and
    preference

39
Concurrent Schedules
  • Concurrent schedules of reinforcement have
    received considerable research attention, b/c
    they may be used as an analytical tool for
    understanding choice and preference
  • Simply stated, all other factors being equal, the
    more reinforcement provided by an alternative,
    the more time and energy spent on that alternative

40
Concurrent Ratio Schedules
  • With ratio schedules, rate of reinforcement is
    directly related to rate of responding (faster
    one responds, sooner one obtains the next
    reinforcement).
  • With a choice between two (or three response
    options) a preference develops for response
    option that produces most frequent reinforcement,
    (an FR10 would be chosen over an FR50, VR5 over a
    VR10, etc.)
  • This preference assumes that reinforcer quantity
    and quality are the same for all response
    options, and that the required response effort is
    the same for all. Why?
  • If response option A operated according to a VR
    10 schedule of reinforcement and response option
    B operated according to an FR 10 schedule, a
    preference would likely develop for which
    response option?

41
Concurrent Interval Schedules
  • On interval schedules, rate of reinforcement is
    not directly related to rate of responding on a
    FI 60 sec schedule, whether the subject emits 1,
    10 or 100 responses, the reinforcer will not
    come any sooner than once every 60 seconds.
  • With a choice between two FI schedules, subjects
    come to predominately spend their time responding
    on the schedule with the shortest interval, a FI
    10 sec schedule will be preferred over a FI 30
    sec schedule BUT NOT EXCLUSIVELY (see next)

42
Concurrent Fixed Interval Schedules
  • subjects develop a pattern of predominately
    responding on the response option with the
    shortest interval AND periodically switching to
    respond on the alternative to obtain
    reinforcement on it before switching back to the
    shorter interval option.
  • A subject will respond predominately on a FI 30
    sec schedule (about every 30 sec) and every once
    in a while (about every 90 sec) switch to respond
    on a FI 90 sec schedule.

43
Concurrent VI VI Schedules
  • To avoid the regularity of switching that can
    occur with concurrent FI schedules, concurrent VI
    schedules are employed. Here since the passage of
    time cannot be as accurately discriminated (since
    the intervals vary) regular switching does not
    develop as switching will not as likely result in
    reinforcement.

44
Experimental Procedures to Study Choice
  • The basic paradigm for investigating choice and
    preference is now complete. In summary, a
    researcher interested in behavioral choice should
  • Arrange two or more concurrently available
    schedules of reinforcement
  • Program interval schedules on each alternative
  • Use variable- rather than fixed-interval schedules

45
The Matching Law
  • In 1961, Richard Herrnstein published an
    influential paper that described that
    distribution of behavior on concurrent schedules
    of positive reinforcement
  • He found that pigeons matched relative rates of
    behavior to relative rates of reinforcement
  • When 90 of the total reinforcement was provided
    by schedule A (and 10 by schedule B),
    approximately 90 of the birds key pecks were on
    this schedule
  • This relationship is known as the matching law

46
Terminology
What is relative rate of response? This term
refers to the rate of response on response
alternative A in relation to the rate of response
on A B Likewise the relative rate of
reinforcement on A the rate of reinforcement on
A/ rate of reinforcement on A rate of
reinforcement on B Herrnstein states that
organisms will come to approximately match their
rate of responding on various alternatives to the
relative rates of reinforcement for each
alternative.
47
The Generality of Matching
  • Matching has been seen with many different
    species, rats, pigeons, cows, laboratory animals
  • In humans, matching has been seen across many
    different situations

48
Departures from Matching
  • In the complex world of people and other animals,
    matching does not always occur
  • This is because in complex environments,
    contingencies of positive and negative
    reinforcement may interact, reinforcers differ in
    value, and histories of reinforcement are not
    controlled
  • Discrimination of alternative sources of
    reinforcement may be weak or absent

49
Matching Time on an Alternative
  • Behavioral choice can also be measured as time
    spent on an alternative
  • Time spent is a useful measure of behavior when
    the response is continuous, as in talking to
    another person
  • The matching law can also be expressed in terms
    of the relative time spent on an alternative
  • Ta/(Ta Tb) Ra/(Ra Rb)

50
Sources of Error in Matching Experiments
  • Many unknown variables also affect choice in a
    concurrent-operant setting
  • These factors arise from the biology and
    environmental history of the organism
  • Sources of error may include different amounts
    of effort for the responses, qualitative
    differences in reinforcement such as food versus
    water, a history of punishment, a tendency to
    respond to the right alternative rather than to
    the left alternative, and sensory capacities

51
Behavioral Economics, Choice, and Addiction
  • The use of basic economic concepts and principles
    translated into behavioral terms and concepts.
  • Law of demand, price, substitutability (ect.) are
    used to analyze, predict, and control behavior in
    choice situations
  • Monkeys will choose cocaine over food in a
    concurrent schedule as determined by size of dose
    but if the price of cocaine is increased (more
    response effort required to obtain cocaine) fewer
    cocaine choices were made. If the same dose
    became too costly, monkeys chose to work for food
    instead.

52
Self-Control
  • Given a choice between a small but immediate
    payoff versus a delayed but larger payoff,
    choice of the former would be impulsive, the
    latter would constitute self-control.
  • Ainslie-Rachlin Principle reinforcement value of
    something decreases as the delay between making a
    choice and obtaining the reinforcer increases

53
Preference Reversal
  • If a person examines a choice that they can make
    later, then the value of a smaller, immediate
    reinforcer will be less than the value of the
    larger, delayed reward, indicating a preference
    reversal
  • BUT as time to make the choice draws near, then
    the immediate small reward looks more appealing!
    So what do we do?

54
How can self-control be made more likely?
  • A Preference Reversal for the larger but delayed
    outcome instead of the smaller but sooner outcome
    can be more likely via a Commitment Response, a
    response that eliminates the impulsive choice as
    an option.

55
Why is DRO Effective?
  • Self-injurious behavior can be shown to be
    maintained by social reinforcement.
  • Rates of self-injurious behavior matched rates
    of social attention for such acts.
  • DRO increases the rates of extraneous sources of
    reinforcement availability.

56
Chapter 10Conditioned Reinforcement
57
A scenario
  • Imagine you are lost
  • You finally stumble upon a landmark that is
    familiar to you
  • You become happy because you know how to get home
    from this spot
  • This spot is both a CS that elicits happiness
    as well as an SD for the behavior of getting
    home.
  • There is also a THIRD function of this stimulus
  • It has also served as a reinforcer for the
    stumbling around behavior that led you to it
  • In fact, if we consider any series of linked
    behaviors (like following directions or recipes,
    etc.), the consequence of completing each step is
    both a reinforcer for completing that step as
    well as an SD for completing the NEXT step

58
Conditioned Reinforcement
  • Conditioned reinforcement is when behavior is
    strengthened by consequence events that have an
    effect because of a learning history.
  • The critical aspect of this history involves a
    pairing between an arbitrary event and an already
    established reinforcer.
  • Once the arbitrary event increases the frequency
    of an operant behavior, it is called a
    conditioned reinforcer.

59
Chain Schedules and Conditioned Reinforcement
  • One way to investigate conditioned reinforcement
    is to construct sequences of behavior.
  • A chain schedule of reinforcement involves two
    or more simple schedules (CRF, FI, VI, FR, etc.)
    each of which is presented sequentially and is
    signaled by an arbitrary stimulus (each has its
    own SD).
  • Only the final or terminal link in this chain
    results in primary reinforcement.

60
Multiple Stimulus Functions
  • An unsignalled chain (or tandem schedule) is a
    sequence of two schedules (such as an FR150 -gt FI
    120 seconds) in which distinct SDs do not signal
    the different components
  • In equivalent tandem vs. chain schedules,
    performances will be BETTER on the chain than the
    tandem
  • This shows that distinct signals serve as both
    SDs and conditioned reinforcers.

61
Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Chains
  • Operant chains are classified as homogeneous when
    the topography or form of response is similar in
    each component, i.e., a similar response
    requirement is in effect in all components.
  • A heterogeneous chain requires different
    responses in each link.

62
Teaching a backwards Chain
  • For complex tasks with many steps, often better
    to teach the final step FIRST and reinforce its
    completion
  • After practicing this final unit many times and
    reinforcing its completion many times, ACESS to
    this unit of SD -gt R -gt SR will now serve as am
    effective conditioned reinforcer for the second
    to last unit on the chain of behavior
  • More

63
Teaching a backwards Chain
  • After practicing the second to last and final
    unit many times, ACESS to the SECOND TO LAST unit
    of SD -gt R -gt SR will now serve as am effective
    conditioned reinforcer for the THIRD to last unit
    on the chain of behavior
  • And so on!
  • Note that we are not doing the behavior in
    reverse! We are simply completing the final step
    first in our teaching procedure

64
Determinants of Conditioned Reinforcement Strength
  • Frequency of Primary Reinforcement paired with
    the conditioned reinforcer
  • Variability of Primary Reinforcement paired with
    the conditioned reinforcer
  • Establishing Operations
  • Delay to Primary Reinforcement

65
Delay Reduction and Conditioned Reinforcement
  • Delay-reduction hypothesis
  • Stimuli closer in time to positive reinforcement,
    or further in time from an aversive event, are
    more effective conditioned reinforcers.
  • Stimuli that signal no reduction in time to
    reinforcement (S?) or no period of safety from an
    aversive event (Save) do not function as
    conditioned reinforcement.

66
Concurrent-Chain Schedules of Reinforcement
  • Previously we talked about choice where the
    organism is free to switch back and forth between
    different response alternatives (called
    CONCURRENT SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT)
  • But often in the real world, once you choose one
    response alternative, you lock out the
    opportunity to do some other behavior for a
    period of time
  • that is, choosing one response COMMITS you to
    that particular response for at least some period
    of time

67
Concurrent-Chain Schedules of Reinforcement
  • How would we study such an idea in the lab?
  • we could ask which does a person prefer, working
    on an FR10 or a VI60s each for some set period of
    time?
  • this is a CONCURRENT CHAIN SCHEDULE
  • It involves two different components (an initial
    LINK, or menu, and a terminal LINK)

68
Concurrent-Chain Schedules of Reinforcement
  • subject is given a "menu" in which it must press
    a particular key to TURN ON a particular schedule
    of reinforcement.
  • There is no reinforcer given for making the
    initial link choice itself and the subject is
    given immediate access to whatever reinforcement
    schedule he chose
  • Subject must stay on that schedule for some
    specified time.
  • Then he can make a choice again.
  • What is our measure of choice in a concurrent
    chain schedule?
  • the proportion of times subject chooses one
    schedule over another

69
Concurrent-Chain Schedules of Reinforcement
  • IF we put in a delay to access to the terminal
    links, however, then a subject is LESS likely to
    choose that initial link because there is now an
    increased delay to reinforcement
  • For example, in a two-key concurrent-chain
    procedure with equivalent initial links but
    different lengths of delay to get to terminal
    links.

70
Generalized Conditioned Reinforcement
  • any event or stimulus paired with or,
    exchangeable for, many sources of primary
    reinforcement.
  • Generalized reinforcement does not depend on
    deprivation or satiation for any specific
    reinforcer.
  • Generalized social reinforcement for human
    behavior approval, attention, affection, praise

71
Tokens, Money and Generalized Reinforcement
  • Other conditioned reinforcers are economic since
    they are exchangeable for goods and services.
    Probably the most important such reinforcement is
    money.
  • A token economy is a set of contingencies based
    on token reinforcement the contingencies specify
    when and under what conditions, particular forms
    of behavior are reinforced with tokens. Tokens
    are exchangeable for a variety of backup
    reinforcers.

72
Chapter 11Correspondence Relations Imitation
and Rule-Governed Behavior
73
Correspondence Relations
  • People often do what others do. A child who
    observes an older sibling raid the cookie jar may
    engage in similar behavior.
  • This is a correspondence between the modeled
    behavior and the replicated behavior.
  • Technically, behavior of one person sets the
    occasion for (is an SD for) an equivalent
    response by the other.

74
Correspondence Relations Continued
  • There are other correspondence relations
    established by our culture. We often receive
    reinforcement if there is a correspondence
    between saying and doing.
  • A large part of socialization involves
    reinforcement for correspondence between what is
    said and what is done.

75
Correspondence Relations Continued
  • Other people reinforce our behavior if there is
    consistency (correspondence) between spoken
    words and later performance.
  • A minister who preaches moral conduct and lives a
    moral life is valued when moral words and moral
    deeds do not match, people become upset and act
    to correct the inconsistency. (They deliver
    punishment!)

76
Imitation
  • Learning by observation involves doing what
    others do
  • The behavior of an observer or learner is
    regulated by the actions of a model.
  • imitation requires that the learner emit a
    response that could only occur by observing a
    model emit a similar response.

77
Spontaneous Imitation
  • Innate or spontaneous imitation is based on
    evolution and natural selection rather than
    learning experiences
  • Implies imitation of others may be an important
    adaptive behavior.

78
Immediate vs. Delayed Imitation
  • Imitation may occur only when the model is
    present or it may be delayed for some time after
    the model has been removed.
  • delayed imitation is more complex since it
    involves remembering the modeled stimulus (SD),
    rather than direct stimulus control.

79
Operant and Generalized Imitation
  • It is possible to teach imitation as an operant
    behavior
  • discriminative stimulus is behavior of the model
    (SDmodel),
  • operant is a response that matches the modeled
    stimulus (Rmatch), and reinforcement is verbal
    praise (Srsocial).
  • Matching the model is reinforced, while
    non-correspondent responses are extinguished.

80
Operant and Generalized Imitation
  • If imitation is reinforced and nonimitation is
    extinguished, imitation of the model will
    increase.
  • On the other hand, nonimitation will occur if
    imitation is extinguished and nonimitation is
    reinforced.
  • Learner learns to do as the model does
    regardless of what the form of the model is!

81
Operant and Generalized Imitation
  • Donald Baer and his associates provided a
    behavior analysis of imitation called generalized
    imitation
  • involves several modeled stimuli (SDs) and
    multiple operants (Rmatch).
  • In each case, what the model does sets the
    occasion for reinforcement of a similar response
    by the child all other responses are
    extinguished.
  • This training results in a stimulus class of
    models and an imitative response class. The
    child now imitates whichever response that the
    model performs.

82
Generalized Imitation
  • The next step is to test for generalization of
    the stimulus and response class.
  • Baer and Sherman (1964) showed that a new-modeled
    stimulus would set the occasion for a novel
    imitative response, without any further
    reinforcement.
  • Generalized imitation accounts for the appearance
    of novel imitative acts in children- even when
    these specific responses were never reinforced.

83
Rules, Observational Learning, and Self-Efficacy
  • For Skinner, following the rules is behavior
    under the control of verbal stimuli SDs.
  • That is, statements of rules, advice, maxims, or
    laws are discriminative stimuli that set the
    occasion for behavior.
  • Rules, as verbal descriptions, may affect
    observational learning.

84
Rule-Governed Behavior
  • A large part of human behavior is regulated by
    verbal stimuli.
  • The common property of these kinds of stimuli is
    that they describe the operating contingencies of
    reinforcement.
  • Formally, rules, instructions, advice, and laws
    are contingency-specifying stimuli, (they
    describe the SDR? Sr relations of everyday
    life.)
  • The term rule-governed behavior is used when the
    listeners (readers) performance is regulated by
    contingency-specifying stimuli.

85
Rule-Governed and Contingency-Shaped Behavior
  • People are said to solve problems either by
    discovery or by instruction.
  • From a behavioral perspective the difference is
    between the direct effects of contingencies
    (discovery) and the indirect effects of rules
    (instruction).
  • When performance is attributed to direct exposure
    to reinforcement contingencies, behavior is said
    to be contingency-shaped.
  • As previously noted, performance set up by
    constructing and following instructions (and
    other verbal stimuli) is termed rule-governed
    behavior.

86
Rule-Governed and Contingency-Shaped Behavior
  • The importance of reinforcement contingencies in
    establishing and maintaining rule-following is
    clearly seen with ineffective rules and
    instructions.
  • When rules describe delayed and improbable
    events, it is necessary to find other reasons to
    follow them.

87
Instructions and Contingencies
  • In his discussion of rule-governed and
    contingency-shaped behavior, Skinner (1969)
    speculated that instructions may affect
    performance differently than the actual
    contingencies of reinforcement.
  • One way to test this idea is to expose humans to
    reinforcement procedures that are accurately or
    inaccurately described by the experimenters
    instructions.
  • If behavior varies with the instructions while
    the actual contingencies remain the same, this
    would be evidence for Skinners assertion.

88
Instructions and Contingencies
  • Instructions are complex discriminative stimuli.
  • Instructional control is a form of rule-governed
    behavior.

89
Chapter 12Verbal Behavior
90
Language and Verbal Behavior
  • In contrast with the term language, verbal
    behavior deals with the performance of a speaker
    and the environmental conditions that establish
    and maintain such performance
  • Verbal behavior refers to the vocal, written and
    gestural performance of a speaker, writer or
    communicator. This behavior operates on the
    listener, reader or observer, who then arranges
    reinforcement of the verbal performance.

91
Speaking, Listening and the Verbal Community
  • Verbal behavior refers to the behavior of the
    speaker, writer or gesturer.
  • The verbal community the practices and customary
    ways a given culture reinforces the behavior of a
    speaker

92
Operant Functions of Verbal Behavior Mands
  • A mand is a response class of verbal operants
    whose form (what is said or written) is regulated
    by specific establishing operations (deprivation,
    satiation, etc.)
  • In lay terms, mands involve asking for something
    you need to happen
  • It is commonly said that a mand specifies its
    own reinforcer as in Give me a cookie but such
    commands are only a small part of mands.

93
Operant Functions of Verbal Behavior Tacts
  • A tact is a response class of verbal operants
    whose form (what is said or written) is regulated
    by specific nonverbal discriminative stimuli
  • tact is derived from contact in that tacts
    are verbal operants that make contact with the
    environment.
  • In lay terms, tacts involve pointing something
    out, commenting about something, labeling or
    identifying something

94
Does the form of the Verbal Behavior identify the
type? NOPE
  • Behavior Honey, you sure look sexy tonight!
  • Is this a tact or a mand?
  • Identifying the type of verbal behavior depends
    on the FUNCTION of the behavior!
  • What function does this statement have?

95
Training Verbal Operants Mands
  • To teach manding, the most direct procedure is to
    manipulate an establishing operation (remove the
    toy), and then reinforce the verbal response
    (can I have the toy?) with the specified
    consequence (guess what it is!).
  • Sometimes called teaching requesting

96
Training Verbal Operants Tacts
  • To teach tacting, a speaker must emit a verbal
    operant whose form (what is said) is a function
    of a nonverbal discriminative stimulus
    reinforcement is non-specific to that stimulus.
  • A child comes home from preschool and when seeing
    her mother the child says, Let me tell you what
    I learned today and the child names several
    parts of the body and points to where they are.
    These would be tacts that would likely be
    reinforced by praise and hugs from the proud
    parent. (Mother may need to PROMPT that tacting
    by the child What did you do in school today?)

97
Additional Verbal Relations Intraverbals
  • An intraverbal is a verbal operant (what the
    listener says) controlled by a verbal
    discriminative stimulus (what the speaker says)
    but there is no one-to-one relation between the
    intraverbal and its SD.
  • If you overhear me saying. Ill be damned! to
    which you covertly reply I sure hope so your
    response is an intraverbal
  • Teaching a child ABCs You say ABCDEFG and the
    child says HIJK-ellamennopee
  • Free association therapy demonstrates this when
    the therapist says Mother and you say
    dominatrix (haha!)

98
Additional Verbal Relations Echoics
  • An echoic is a verbal operant in response to a
    verbal SD but with a point-to-point
    correspondence between the SD and operant. If you
    swear after hitting your thumb with a hammer
    (Damn!) and your four year-old-son subsequently
    repeats your expletive, his response is an echoic.

99
Additional Verbal Relations Textuals
  • A textual is a verbal operant in which the verbal
    SD (written or spoken words made by another) and
    the response the listener makes correspond to
    each other but not with a formal PHYSICAL
    similarity.
  • In lay terms, you are READING aloud (or to
    yourself) or TAKING NOTES

100
Symbolic Behavior and Stimulus Equivalence
  • Stimulus equivalence occurs when presentation of
    one class of stimuli occasion responses made to
    other stimulus classes.
  • Example Most Americans will have a specific
    response to the written or spoken word or image
    of Osama Bin Laden.
  • The word in any recognizable form or media, or
    the image of the person whether in cartoon
    caricature, photograph or video footage, will
    occasion the same response.
  • Stimulus equivalence is said to exist when
    reflexivity, symmetry and transitivity can be
    shown to be in effect between distinct stimuli.

101
Basic Equivalence Relations
  • Reflexivity (also referred to as identity
    matching or matching to sample) a picture of
    Bin Laden is matched up with an identical picture
    of Bin Laden. (AA)
  • Symmetry stimulus A is interchangeable with
    stimulus B, or AB and BA a picture of Bin
    Laden is matched up with the phrase head of Al
    Queida and vice versa.
  • Transitivity consists of showing that stimulus A
    B and stimulus BC and if the learner responds
    to A as interchangeable or equivalent to C then
    transitivity is in effect between A, B and C. If
    stimulus A (a picture of Bin Laden) is equivalent
    to stimulus B, head of Al Queida and B is
    equivalent to written words OSAMA BIN LADEN as
    stimulus C if the picture of Bin Laden (stimulus
    A) is matched up with the written words OSAMA BIN
    LADEN (stimulus C) then transitivity is shown.
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com