Behavior Modification II: ABC Complexities

Behavior Modification II:ABC Complexities Lecture 11

ABCs of Behavior • Antecedents • Occur before behavior • Cue, setting, context • Behavior • Individuals action • Perform or withhold • Consequences • Events that follow behavior • Increases, decreases, or no effect on behavior ~

Contingencies of Reinforcement • Contingency • Relationship of ABCs • One event depends on another • Behavior contingent on… • Antecedents • Consequences • i.e., controlling variables • Complex contingencies • Multiple A, B, and/or Cs ~

Complex Contingencies • Example: SIB; Answering door • ABCs? • Alternate • antecedents? • behaviors? • consequences? • Importance of functional analysis • May require different treatment ~

Complex Contingencies • Example: smoking • ABCs? • Alternate • antecedents? • behaviors? • consequences? ~

Types of Antecedents • Two main categories • Prerequisites • Stimulus control • Prerequisites • knowledge • skills • resources ~

Antecedents: Stimulus Control • Stimulus Control • Discriminative stimuli • Prompts • Setting events • Discriminative stimuli (SD/ S) • Signal that indicates likely outcome • RFT or punishment • Traffic light; fire alarm; out of order sign • Stimulus control: SD vs S ~

Antecedents: Prompts • Specific event • Directly facilitates performance • Instructions, examples, modeling • Examples • teaching computer program • Experimental procedures ~

Antecedents: Prompts • Requests • High vs low probability • High then Low   compliance • Holding still during medical procedure • Fading • Gradual removal of prompts • All or some ~

Antecedents: Setting Events • Context, conditions • indirect effects • Motivational; emotional state • Get fired; get a raise • Establishing operation • (type of setting event) • alters effectiveness of consequences • Influences frequency of behavior • Deprivation vs. satiation ~

Behaviors • Target behaviors • To increase or decrease • Shaping • Successive approximations • Chaining • Behaviors  sequence of responses • Break into individual responses • Forward chaining • Backward chaining ~

Behaviors: Chaining • Forward chaining • Start w/ first behavior in sequence • e.g., injections, SPSS • Backward chaining • Start w/ last behavior in sequence • e.g.; learning to put on shirt • Immediate RFT of completed behavior • Needs no explanation of relationships between steps ~

Consequences • Reinforcement • Positive & negative • Strengthen behavior • Punishment • Positive & negative • weaken behavior • Extinction • Absence of SR • reverses behavioral change ~

Generalization & Discrimination • Stimulus (SD) • Generalization & discrimination • Response Generalization • Changes in behaviors other than target behaviors •  smiling   laughing & talking • Physical punishment of B   social behavior;  hostility • Response covariation • Clusters of Bs change together ~

Complexities of Behavior Modification • Require • Careful analysis • Different treatments • Consideration of unintended changes in behavior • Importance of detailed functional analysis ~

Behavior Modification II: ABC Complexities