Reinforcement Part 1 Week 5 Increasing Behavior Positive

Reinforcement: Part 1 Week 5: Increasing Behavior

Positive Reinforcement • Delivered Immediately after a behavior • Delivered contingent upon a behavior • Increases probability of future behavior

Potential Rule Governed Behavior • When no immediate consequence • Behavior changes without reinforcement • Large increase in behavior follows one instance of reinforcement • Rule exists

Some important Points • • We do not reinforce people Practice is not reinforcement Feedback is not always reinforcement Artificial Reinforcement does not mean “fake”

Motivating Operations • Establishing Operations: Increases temporarily the immediate effectiveness of a reinforcer. – Deprivation • Abolishing Operations: Decreases temporarily the immediate effectiveness of a reinforcer – Satiation

4 term Contingency EO A B No water Drinking Drink Fountain C Fluid intake

Reinforcement Classification • Unconditioned – Unlearned – Primary • Conditioned – Secondary – Learned

Generalized Conditioned Reinforcement • Neutral Stimulus that is paired with many other reinforcers – The more reinforcers are paired with a neutral stimulus the more likely the neutral stimulus becomes a GCR – E. g. money

Premack Principle • LPR Before access to HPR • Response-Deprivation Hypothesis (Timberlake & Allison, 1974). – This is an important consideration when developing treatments. – Don’t just make HPR contingent. – It must be contingent and be deprived relative to free operant levels!

Identifying Potential Reinforcers • Stimulus Preference Assessment – Ask People • Open ended questions • Choice Format • Rank-ordering – Observe • Contrived • Naturalistic – Experiment • Single Stimulus • Paired Stimuli • Multiple Stimuli

Identifying Potential Reinforcers Continued • Reinforcer Assessment – Concurrent Schedule of Reinforcement • May cause premature rejection (preference does not mean ineffective reinforcer). – Multiple Schedule Reinforcer Assessment – Progressive-Ratio Schedule Reinforcer Assessment • Increase response effort (schedule) and see how behavior changes.

Other Methods of Identifying Reinforcers • ABAB • Non-contingent Reinforcement • Differential Reinforcement

Non-Contingent Reinforcement? • What is wrong with this term? • Presenting Reinforcement on a time schedule

Tips for Using Reinforcement • • Easily Achieved Initial Criterion Sufficient Magnitude of Reinforcer Vary Reinforcer Direct contingencies when possible Use prompts with reinforcement Reinforce each occurrence initially Use praise/attention with other reinforcers Gradually increase response-to-reinforcement delay (some call this fading – it is not – Thinning)

Negative Reinforcement • Removal of aversive stimulus • Immediately after a behavior • Increases probability of behavior in future

Escape Versus Avoidance • Escape – Termination • Avoidance – Prevention

Examples?

Schedules of Reinforcement

Fixed Ratio • Reinforcement delivered after a specific number of target responses are emitted. – Post Reinforcement Pause • Larger the ratio longer the PRP – De. Luca & Holborn (1990) • Provided FR schedule to pedaling behavior of fat people. Fat people started pedaling more

Variable Ratio • Reinforcement provided contingent upon a variable number of responses. • Strong Consistent Performance • Group Contingencies makes use of VR Schedules

Fixed Interval • Reinforcement provided after first response after specified period of time. • PRP and Scallop Effect • Slow rates of responding

Variable Interval • Reinforcement provided after first response after variable duration of time elapsed. • Constant stable rate of responding • Limited Hold: amount of time R+ is available once interval elapses.

Differential Reinforcement • • • DR-Other DR-Alternate DR-Icompatiable DR-Lower Rates DR-Higher Rates

Compound Schedules of Reinforcement • Can be: – Successive or simultaneously – With or without discriminative stimuli – Reinforcement for each element or for the combination of all.

Concurrent Schedules of Reinforcement • 2 contingencies of reinforcement operating independently and simultaneously – E. g. you can study or go out for the night • Behaviors are Matched to maximize rates of reinforcement

Discriminative Schedules • Multiple Schedule (Stimulus discrimination) – Alternating two or more schedules – Uses an S+ to signal each schedule • (e. g. 1 behavior class but two different situations for two different reinforcement schedules) • Chained Schedule – Specific order of presentation – Behavior may be different for each schedule – All schedules must be complete for final outcome

Nondiscriminative Schedules • Mixed Schedules – Same as Mult. But no discriminative stimulus – FR 15/FI 1 sometimes after FR 15 and sometimes after FI 1 • Tandem Schedules – Same as chained but no discriminative stimulus – FR 15/FI 2 means first instance will be 15 response and second will be in 2 minutes

Combined Schedules • Alternative Schedules – Either or Schedule (whichever comes first) • Conjunctive Schedules – Both Schedules being met before reinforcement is provided

Matching Law • Myerson Article