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Behavior Modification

Reinforcement IssuesSpring 2010

Reinforcement

Any stimulus added or removed contingent upon a behavior that maintains or increases the strength of the behavior

Positive reinforcement Contingently ADDING a stimulus following a behavior to

strengthen or maintain a behavior.

Negative reinforcement Contingently REMOVING a stimulus following a behavior to

strengthen or maintain a behavior

These are consequences of operant behavior.

Reinforcement is a LAW.

Using reinforcement

Selecting a behavior Start general (being successful) Get more specific (being to work on time)

Choosing a reinforcer Different reinforcers work differently for different people Consumable; activity; manipulative (play with a fav toy, etc);

possessional and social.

Satiation and deprivation (motivating operations) Temporarily alter the effectiveness of a reinforcer.

Establishing operation (increases effectiveness) - deprivation Abolishing operation (decreases effectiveness) - satiation

Using reinforcement cont.

Reinforcer size Size is important – usually, but not always, as you increase

the size of the reinforcer it maintains more behavior $$$$$$$$$ Must watch out for satiation!

Using rules Instructions are good to use with humans, but not necessary They speed up the learning process Placeholders for the delay to reinforcement

Using reinforcement, cont.

Immediacy Typically, the sooner you can reinforce, the better. Placeholders to long delays help (these can be small

reinforcers) – self statements work here too.

Contingent vs. non-contingent Reinforcers that are non-contingent do not affect the

behavior in question – we call them rewards. Accidental reinforcement – adventitious leads to

superstitious behavior

Working toward natural reinforcers Most behaviors do have natural reinforcers – but we

need to get the behavior mod program to reach these.

Conditioned Reinforcers

Unconditioned reinforcers – primary Food, water, sex, warm

Conditioned reinforcers By pairing neutral stimuli with primary reinforcers you

can develop conditioned or secondary reinforcers Clickers, photos, money You present the conditioned Sr and then later, on

occasion present the backup Sr (the primary or even secondary reinforcer)

Tokens Token economies work on this principle – you earn

tokens and exchange them for other reinforcers. Immediacy.

Conditioned Reinforcement, Cont.

Make sure the backup reinforcer is actually a reinforcer Food is not a reinforcer to a satiated organism

Use many backup reinforcers Generalized conditioned reinforcer – connects to

MANY backup reinforcers

Intermittent reinforcement is still the best (in terms of the backup Sr)

Don’t let the conditioned Sr extinguish.

Problems

Consistency – make sure that the conditioned Sr actually leads to a backup Sr. Punishment has the same issue.

The extinction problem – make sure that you use effective backup Sr.

Intermittent reinforcement

Schedules of reinforcement A rule of how frequently a behavior will be reinforced, if at all.

The ones that maintain the highest rates are intermittent reinforcement.

Ratio schedules Dependent on the number of behaviors performed

Interval schedules Dependent on ONE behavior after a given amount of time.

Limited hold After an interval – a response will produce a reinforcer only for a given window of

time.

Duration Schedules Used with continuous behavior Must be performed for a given length of time to receive the reinforcer