Applied Behavior Analysis

1. Applied Behavior Analysis • Using behavioral approach in applied setting: • Schools • Institutions • Industrial settings, hospitals, etc. • Animal training • Behavior Analysts are psychologists, teachers, speech pathologists, audiologists, etc. who are certified in behavior analysis

2. Applied Behavior Analysis • What do they do? • Evaluate the situation and figure out • The antecedants • The behavior • The consequences • The ABC’s of behavior • Conduct a functional analysis • Create a behavioral program to change the behavior • Evaluate the program

3. Functional Analysis • Determining the function of the behavior • Trying to find what contingencies maintain the behavior • Can be environmental • Can be “internal” environmental effects • Must “listen” or observe behavior to determine causes!

4. Remember Doris Ann!

5. Using Reward and Punishment • Important to tailor the program to the clients • Not a one-size fits all • Use the functional analysis to determine program • Important ethical guidelines • Make individual as successful as possible • Make individual as independent as possible • Reduce the reliance on outside sources of reinforcement and punishment

7. Effective Reinforcement Procedures in Applied Settings: • Must be effective • Must be able to predict a priori the: • direction of behavior change • magnitude of reinforcement effect • Must be highly flexible across different populations and settings

8. Traditional Models of Reinforcement: • Rely on transituational approaches to reinforcement • “Once a reinforcer, always a reinforcer” • Produced catalog of items, but not good efficacy or reliability • Do not really allow a priori predictions

9. Alternative: • Think of reinforcers as something you want • Punishment as something you don’t want • Time out is extinction from reward and too much “nothing”

10. Disequilibrium models: • Idea that we are at a state of equilibrium • If we don’t have enough we will work to get more • If we have too much we will work to get less • How make something reinforcing? • Take it away • Give the person less of it • Sell it! • Can be anything or any activity the person wants

13. Why not use negative reinforcement? • Side effects: don’t like the person delivering negative reinforcer • Uneven and sporadic behavior • Strong stimulus cues: only behave when “sD” is around: when teacher not there, the kids go wild!

14. Punishment effects • Traditional Definition: Any contingent event which results in a decrease in operant responding • New Definition: Punishment effects are Produced when schedule constraints produce a state of of disequilibrium • Give the individual “Too much” of something contingent on a behavior

15. Guidelines for using positive punishment • Behavior must be dangerous to person or others • No chance to interrupt and reinforce “good” behavior • Tried other alternatives

16. Rules for Using Time-Out • 1 minute per year of age • Must be quiet to get the timer to start • Cannot use for dangerous, disruptive or self-stimulatory behavior • Must really be “time out” from other rewards

17. Negative Punishment • Response cost: your response costs you something or some behavior • Two parts to OVERCORRECTION • Restitution: reinstatement of environment (clean up) • Positive practice: practice better response for situation • Can also use satiation/habituation

18. Can use others as Model! • We learn by watching others • Bandura noted this and developed a theory about how modeling occurs: • Described the process of observational learning in terms of social, personal and developmental competencies • Mixes old and new terms • Rewards convey information • Incentive motivation = reinforcement • Vicarious learning = reward by watching

19. What is modeling? • Subject watches a model engage in a novel behavior • Time delay • Test the subject: will the subject perform the novel behavior when put in that setting?

20. Four Mechanisms of Modeling • Attentional Processes • the person doing the modeling must pay attention • distinctiveness/characteristics of observer and model important • Retentional Processes • must be able to remember what happened! • Cognitive abilities play a role here • Motoric Processes • must be able to physically reproduce behavior • physical status important here • Reward Processes • reinforcement and punishment for continuing the behavior • intrinsic (internal) vs extrinsic (external) reward play a role

21. Attentional processes • Subject must attend to model • Several influencing factors: • Distinctiveness of model: age, sex, status • Affective valence • Complexity • Prevalence • Functional value to subject • Characteristics of the observer important: • Sensory capabilities • Arousal level • Perceptual set • Past reinforcement history

22. Retentional processes • Must be able to remember what was observed • Two types of remembering • Imaginal • Verbal • Several influencing factors • Symbolic coding • Cognitive organization • Symbolic rehearsal

23. Motoric processes • Must be able to physically reproduce the behavior • Several influencing factors • Physical capabilities • Availability of component responses (do you know how to put the behaviors together) • Self-observation and feedback • Accuracy of the feedback

24. Reward processes • Must have some motivation for repeating the behavior • Must be rewarded yourself after you do the behavior • Doesn’t explain the motivation for the first try, but explains what maintains it • Several factors • External reinforcement • Vicarious reinforcement • Self-reinforcement

25. Research on Social/Observational learning and modeling • Animals do it! • Monkeys on island: one dropped sandy grain in water; grain floated to top….soon all did it! • Birds learn and imitate one another • Dogs and cats can learn from one another (and rats and horses, etc.) • BOBO doll studies by Bandura • Preschool age children (originally just boys) • Two groups • Control group watched nature movie • Experimental group watched video of model hitting Bobo the Clown (model used novel behaviors/words) • Test: who was more aggressive? • Result: those who had observed the model- and they acted just like the model

26. Research on Social/Observational learning and modeling • Other studies: • Television violence: • Live action • Cartoon • News/live • Which was worse? Live action or real footage • The more realistic the characters, the more likely a child is to imitate • Not just aggression • Sexual behavior • Prosocial behavior such as helping • Can use as therapy! • We model good and bad behavior!