Multiple exemplar training: A teaching style, for the benefit of generalization, uses a variety of stimulus and response outcomes. For example, teaching a child to say, “hello” and / or wave to the stimulus of both to someone waving hello and saying, “howdy.” General Case Analysis: Is a systematic way of teaching examples that represent a full range of both […]
A contingency can be either a reinforcement or punishment that occurs after a behavior has been expressed by an individual or group. A naturally existing contingency, in layman’s terms, “natural consequence” happens without the manipulation of the behavioral analysts. Such an example would be, hitting the snooze button makes you late for work which causes you to leave your house […]
Baer, Wolf, and Risely (1968) included “generality of behavior change” as one of their 7 dimensions of applied behavior analysis. Generalization of behavior change occurs when that behavior occurs outside of the learning environment. Generalization can happen across 1) settings, 2) time and 3) across people and exists when the behavior occurs in these various dimensions without relearning. Response Maintenance […]
A schedule of reinforcement is a rule that describes how often the occurrence a behavior will receive a reinforcement. On the two ends of the spectrum of schedules of reinforcement there is continuous reinforcement (CRF) and extinction (EXT). Continuous reinforcement provides a reinforcement each and every time a behavior is emitted. If every time you hear the doorbell ring and […]
The concept of reinforcement is one of the most important and utilized principles in applied behavior analysis. The most basic definition of reinforcement is that a type of behavior (R) is followed by a reinforcement (S^R) there will be an increase in the future frequency of that behavior. Reinforcement can be categorized as types or classes of reinforcement and they are […]
A preference assessment is conducted to identify potential reinforcers. Note, we don’t know that these things are actually reinforcing until we see if applying the items increases a behavior. To determine if a potential reinforcer is actually reinforcing, we can do a reinforcer assessment. Ways to identify potential reinforcers: Ask the person about their preferences. This is an indirect method. […]
Unconditioned Reinforcer is also called a primary reinforcer. These are reinforcers that do not need to be learned, such as food, water, oxygen, warmth and sex. These are all primary drives that we have for basic survival and if they are deprived in any way, gaining access to these reinforcers is very motivating. Conditioned Reinforcer is also called a secondary […]
The Premack Principle is also known as “Gradmas’s Law.” Parents (and Grandmas) use it naturally all the time. It is the principle that offering something that happens often in a free operant situation to be contingent upon something else that happens with low frequency. So, for example, “You can watch television after you have finished your homework.” Or, “You can […]
“Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.” “A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.” “The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.” “A person who has been punished is not thereby simply […]
