ABSC 304 Test 4 Study Guide

Social positive reinforcement refers to behaviors maintained by gaining access to social attention or tangible items after the behavior occurs. For example, a child might throw a tantrum to get a toy.

Automatic positive reinforcement involves behaviors maintained by the direct sensory consequences they produce, like humming for self-soothing without external social interaction.

Social negative reinforcement involves behaviors maintained by escaping or avoiding social demands. For example, a student may feign illness to avoid schoolwork.

Automatic negative reinforcement occurs when behaviors are maintained by reducing or eliminating discomfort, like scratching an itch to relieve irritation.

FBA, or Functional Behavioral Assessment, is a process to identify the causes or functions of problem behavior in order to develop effective interventions.

Indirect assessment relies on interviews and questionnaires to gather information about the behavior. Strengths include ease and speed, but weaknesses include potential inaccuracies due to reliance on subjective reports.

Descriptive assessment involves observing the individual in their natural environment to identify patterns in behavior. It is more accurate than indirect methods but can be time-consuming and less controlled.

Functional analysis involves systematically manipulating environmental factors to determine the function of problem behavior by testing different conditions.

Strengths include its accuracy in identifying behavior functions, but weaknesses include the potential for ethical concerns and the risk of reinforcing the behavior during testing.

Functional analysis tests conditions like attention, escape, alone, and play to observe how antecedents (e.g., demands) and consequences (e.g., attention) influence behavior.

Data collection ensures that extinction is effectively reducing problem behavior and allows for adjustments if necessary.

Conducting an FBA helps identify the function of the behavior, ensuring that extinction is appropriately applied to reduce the targeted behavior.

Extinction involves withholding the reinforcement that maintains the problem behavior. For example, if tantrums are maintained by attention, extinction would involve no longer providing attention when the child tantrums.

Extinction can lead to an increase in problem behavior (extinction burst) or aggression, which may be unsafe in some cases.

Consistency across change agents ensures that the problem behavior does not get reinforced by one person while another is using extinction, preventing mixed signals.

Continuous reinforcement schedules result in quicker decreases in problem behavior during extinction, while intermittent reinforcement schedules can make extinction take longer.

Using reinforcement alongside extinction teaches alternative, desirable behaviors that replace the problem behavior, making the intervention more effective.

DRA (Differential Reinforcement of Alternative behavior) reinforces a specific alternative behavior to the problem behavior, while DRO (Differential Reinforcement of Other behavior) reinforces the absence of the problem behavior.

Reinforcers can be determined through preference assessments or reinforcer assessments.

The three types are single-stimulus, paired-stimulus, and multiple-stimulus. Items are presented to the individual, data is collected on their choices, and preferences are calculated based on selection frequency.

Reinforcer assessments are conducted to ensure that the identified reinforcers are effective in maintaining or increasing desired behaviors.

For attention-maintained behavior, DRA provides attention for appropriate behavior. For tangible-maintained behavior, DRA provides access to items following appropriate behavior. For escape-maintained behavior, DRA allows a break after appropriate requests.

The initial DRO interval is set based on the baseline rate of the problem behavior, ensuring it is short enough to provide frequent reinforcement.

The DRO interval should be reset when problem behavior occurs, delaying reinforcement.

In DRA, a child is reinforced for asking nicely instead of screaming for a toy. In DRO, a child is reinforced for going a set amount of time without hitting.

Antecedents can be manipulated by providing clear instructions, using prompts, or altering the environment to make desired behavior more likely.

Antecedents can be manipulated by reducing triggers, modifying tasks to make them easier, or offering choices to decrease undesired behavior.

Noncontingent reinforcement can involve providing regular attention, access to tangibles, or breaks from tasks, regardless of behavior.

You can decrease aversiveness by using task modifications, increasing predictability, offering breaks, and providing choices.