Dear SPED 553 Class,
Now that you have embarked on your readings for this course....it is a great opportunity to begin a discussion of the basic concepts you will have to learn in this class...who wants to start?
Okay, I'll start:
Example:
Positive Reinforcement. When the teacher asks a question in class, a student raises his hand, remains quiet, waits to be called on, and when the teacher calls on him, she delivers verbal praise by telling him that she really liked how he raised his hand, remained quiet, and waited to be called on (contingent delivery of a consequence following a behavior that increases a behavior's rate of occurrence...in future). It would be considered positive reinforcement IF, the behavior of hand raising and remaining quiet MAINTAINS OR INCREASES its future rate of occurrence when the teacher asks questions.
Positive reinforcement occurs with ALL behaviors regardless of how socially appropriate or inappropriate they are. For example, the child who tantrums because they want a candy...and the parent gives them the candy...well, that child was positively reinforced because the trantruming resulted in the contingent delivery of a consequence (candy) that will undoubtedly increase/maintain the trantruming's rate of occurrence (in the future) each time the child wants a candy....makes sense?
(Extension: In the first example, we could say that Generalization of the behavior occured if hand raising extends to similar situations such as during class discussions, rather than just instances of the teacher asking questions, or if the behavior is exhibited in different classes and with different teachers).
If the behavior does not maintain or increase its rate in the future, well, then it does not fit the definition of positive reinforcement (green type) and cannot be considered as such.
The term, "positive" in the concept of POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT should not be viewed as the typical use of the term referring to something "good." Rather, think of the term "positive" in terms of math functions...that is an "additive" function.
Who wants to try with other terms/concepts?
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24 comments:
I'll have a go.
Negative Reinforcement is when something is removed and that removal causes the behavior to continue to occur in the future. Negative reinforcement does not have anything to do with punishment or something bad.
Example: Negative reinforcement is in place when I nag my husband over and over to stop leaving his jacket on the kitchen table.
The "nagging" is removed when he moves his jacket. He follows through in order to remove the adversive (the nagging). If the behavior of moving his jacket occurs, as soon as I start nagging, in order for me to stop nagging, then this behavior is being negatively reinforced.
In Dr. Alvarado's example, whereas the child is being positively reinforced for screaming (be given candy), the parent is being negatively reinforced for providing the candy, because...why? The screaming stops. The adversive is removed. The parent's behavior of giving candy is reinforced because the screaming stopped. However, this is only negative reinforcement, if the behavior of giving candy when screaming occurs, continues to occur in the future.
Negative reinforcement always confuses me....Hopefully I haven't confused anyone! Please let me know if I have screwed up :)
Elizabeth
"Extinction" describes when a previously reinforced behavior becomes 'extinct', which means that when it is no longer reinforced than it should gradually decrease. For example, if a child on the playground does not line up when the bell rings and the teacher proceeds to encourage the child to line up by running after the child, the teacher is actually positively reinforcing this behavior of not lining up. The reason it is being positively reinforced is because the child knows that you will proceed to chase him/her to have them line up when the bell rings. This will increase the behavior and the child will run away every time the bell rings. However, running away will not be reinforced if the bell rings and the teacher ignores the child’s actions of running away and instead focuses on the other children who are listening and behaving correctly. Therefore, the rate of the child running away will gradually decrease and eventually become 'extinct'.
It is confusing in the fact, that when the teacher runs after the child to tell him/her that what he is doing is wrong is actually increasing this bad behavior and supplying the child with positive reinforcement.
At last, every action has a consequence and sometimes one does not realize when they are actually positively reinforcing a bad behavior.
Candy
Good examples so far...to add a bit of clarification to Candy's example...extinction occurs when a behavior that was previously reinforced, is no longer resulting in reinforcement. So, in the case of the child running away after the bell rings...assuming that the running was being reinforced by the teacher chasing the student...then, when the teacher NO LONGER chases the student...the running away behavior is no longer resulting in the consequence that has been maintaining the running away behavior (being chased by the teacher).
Important point- When considering extinction as an intervention there are several important factors to consider: (1) The only way this approach can work is if you have control of the maintaining consequence...in the example above, the teacher could make the choice to not chase after the student...however, if the maintaining consequence was avoidance...ignoring or not chasing after the student is NOT putting the behavior on extinction; (2) behaviors that place the student or others in danger CANNOT be placed on extinction...that is, if the child is head butting for purposes of gaining teacher's attention...it would be unethical for the teacher to say, "I am just going to ignore the headbutting..."
We'll talk in more detail about the concept of extinction later on in the semester.
Shaping. When a student who makes a habit of freely wandering around the room remains in his seat for two minutes, and the teacher praises him verbally or rewards him with points, free time, or some other preset reward, the teacher is reinforcing the “baby steps” (successive approximation) that will eventually lead to an entire class period in his seat.
This method is useful for students who have severe attention or behavior problems where making the leap from the undesirable behavior to the desired behavior is too large. This allows the student to be successful while reaching small goals in the pursuance of the target behavior.
Punishment is when a consequence is delivered that decreases a behavior. This word is very frequently used incorrectly by both parents and teachers who feel they have "punished" a child by giving them a consequence they know the child will not like. For example, a child yells at her parents because she did not get the toy she wanted. Her parents then ground her for the next week as her "punishment" for yelling at them. Two days later, she yells at her parents again for not letting her watch the show she wanted on t.v. The consequence they delivered - being grounded- did not decrease the child's behavior; therefore, was not punishment.
This method is not recommended for use on students because it is extremely ineffective. It only targets behavior without taking into account the antecedent or the consequence. As a result, the student does not learn an appropriate replacement behavior and continues to exhibit inappropriate behavior. Furthermore, when teachers deliver a punishment, the child is in control. As teachers, it is essential that we are always in control of our students, not the other way around.
Punishment is a consequence for a behavior that DECREASES the future occurrence of that behavior. A teacher may think she is punishing a student by sending him out of the room when he is being loud. However if this student's behavior continues to happen daily then the teacher is not actually providing punishment. The teacher may actually be positively reinforcing the behavior. The student knows that every time he yells out in class-his teacher will send him out-and he gets out of the assignment.
Stimulus control is when an antecedent causes a behavior or serves as a cue for the behavior to occur. If the behavior is reinforced, the behavior will continue to occur. This means that situations with a similar stimulus to the one under control will often cause the same behavior to occur.
For example, one week I borrowed my mom's car that has a volume adjustment button on the steering wheel. I would push the button to turn the volume up and was reinforced to continually use the button because the volume would in fact increase. The next week, I returned to driving my own car which does not have this feature. Due to the similar settings though (driving a car) my finger automatically reached for the volume button on my own steering wheel. The antecedent of driving a car and listening to music served as the same cue no matter which car I was driving because the settings were very similar. Nothing would happen when I pushed on my steering wheel, therefore I was not reinforced for this behavior and quite quickly I stopped doing it.
This is a clarification on Shayla Green's comment:
If a child yells and teacher sends the student out of the classroom...and the yelling continues in the future...we know that by definition it is not punishment...however, it may be either positive or negative reinforcement depending on what is the maintaining consequence of the yelling behavior.
So, if the consequence of yelling is getting out of having to do math (sent out of the classroom)..then, the removal of an aversive (math tasks) actually is increasing the behaviors...which by definition is NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT...
However, if the consequence of yelling is getting something (recognition, attention, being with his buddies in the office, etc.)....and actually increases the yelling behavior, then, by definition (contingent delivery of a consequence following a behavior that increases a behavior's rate of occurrence...in future), it is POSITIVE REIRCEMENT...
Again, it is essential that everyone knows the difference between these two.
Hope this helps,
Dr. A
Here are more examples of negative reinforcement. In a non-school setting: Some vehicles have a beeping sound when you enter a car. This beeping sound stops when you put on your seatbelt. The person is negatively reinforced because putting on the seatbelt takes away the aversive situation which is usually an annoying sound! In a school setting: A teacher tells his/her preschool class that they must put away their toys. Until then, they will sit in class and continue to miss recess. The students are negatively reinforced because putting away their toys allows them to escape the aversive environment which in this case is the classroom. Hope this helps!
Good entries...remember that opportunities to participate in this discussion will end by 4 pm this coming Tuesday...a new post will be made at that time and a new opportunity to join in the discussion will commence.
Dr. A
Modeling takes place when a teacher is teaching his or her class, and uses the I do it, we do it, you do it method. An example of this often takes place in math classess. The teacher shows how to do a problem, then the class and the tecaher do a problem together, then the class does a problem on their own.
Modeling takes place when the teacher demonstrates the desired behavior in order to prompt a similar response.
Another example of modeling is when a class is being loud and the teacher stops talking and waits for her students to do the same thing. Good teachers use the modeling method often in his or her classroom.
A child's behavior is a reflection of the family. A reflection of the parents in particular. When a child is using inappropriate behavior, such as crying, screaming, throwing himself on the ground, or hitting, parents are willing to do almost anything to quiet the child and stop the behavior. The parents give the child the candy or toy in order to stop the tantrum. The parents are being negatively reinforced while the child is being positively reinforced. It seems to me that the next time the child wants candy or a toy, he will resort to the same behavior. If he gets it he will again be positively reinforced. He got what he wanted didn't he? And at the same time the parents are being negatively reinforced. Does that make sense??
Ok, so shaping uses the reinforcement of successive approximations to a desired behavior to teach new behavior (pg.15).
So in my classroom right now I have a student where we are attempting to teach "sitting appropriately" at a table. Right we are attempting to have the student sit for about a minute and answers questions that we know he can answer. The student is given verbal praise for "sitting appropriately" (i.e. feet on the floor, in the chair, hands folded) and also edible reinforcers or time watching a prefered video after the minute.
The problem is, he is extremely amused by the reactions he gets when he spits on and assaults the teacher. It has sometimes been a dramatic reaction. It has gotten to the point where he is working only with two teachers. When the student does not get the reaction from spitting, he starts to physically attack the teacher (scratch, kick, slap). We are now using prompted sitting about half of the time for 5-10 min for 1 min of compliance.
Ok, so I guess what I'm trying to get at here is that we have definitely seen an increase in this sort of non-compliant and an escalation of aggressive behaviors. Do you think there will be a peak, where the student will become more compliant?
With regards to Kevin Skidmore's situation...would it be possible for the teacher he is working with to contain the student’s behavior without “reacting” in a manner in which the student is amused? I’m not sure what you have tried in the past and the exact teacher reactions which cause him to become amused; however, maybe the teacher should not say anything when he begins to become aggressive. Would it be possible for the teacher(s) to just walk away from the situation for a short period of time as long as the student was safe? Maybe he could be taught in a separate location away from other students, such as another secluded classroom or an unoccupied workroom. This would allow the teachers to walk away without reacting and causing the students behavior to be reinforced. I just wanted to offer additional suggestions for you Kevin. I don’t know if any of my suggestions would be applicable to your situation or feasible for that matter; however, maybe it is worth a try.
So I'm still trying to concretely get all of these terms. I'm still a tad confused about positive/negative reinforcement and punishment.
For example: I work in a class where the students are provided morning recess time if they remain on task and complete assignments (positive reinforcement.) There are always a few students who don't remain on task, fail to finish their assignments, and therefore do not receive recess. Usually the next day, the students who weren't on task previously and didn't get recess, buckle down and finish their work because they know they want their recess.
Is the consequence of not getting morning recess (or any other positive reinforcer) a punishment because it is designed to decrease off task behavior, or is it just a by-product of positive reinforcement? If you're positively reinforcing students, and not everyone earns the reinforcer, what exactly is that to the students who don't earn the reward (pos. reinforcement, neg. reinforcement, punishment, etc.)?
Hi Everyone. I'm thinking about how difficult it is to actually figure out what the antecedent for a behavior is. I work at Stein's adult transition facility where we have a lot of non verbal students. Today after we had finished work one of the students picked up the trash pickers and threw it down. I signed and told him verbally that we were all done with work. Then I turned to walk away and go back on the trolley to take the students to get lunch and then the student, let's call him "S" ran at me and hit me two times. To me it is likely that he was mad because one of the other students who brings his own lunch and snack ate in front of him and he got upset because he didn't get any food. The part I can't understand was that everyday student "xa" eats in front of student "S" why did he pick today to attack me?
I think that sometimes the event that leads up to the behavior could be way before or sometimes internal. How can you measure a behavior that is internal or happened way before?
Other than just reacting with a behavior intervention plan afterwards usually I can be proactive on at least seeing the behavior coming, but sometimes it just comes out of know where. Maybe it's just over a long period of time that you can really see what makes that individual upset or violent. I think student "S" was upset about not getting food, but when they brought him back to school he crumpled up the food and threw it. I think there is other stuff bothering him. So my question is other than over a long time how can you really see antecedents?
Punishment occurs when the consequence following a behavior decreases the rate of occurence of that behavior. Is there such a thing as effective punishment? There is a section in Siegfried Engelmann's "Low Performers' Manual" that explores this concept. I will bring in the section for class on Tuesday if anyone would like to take a look. Engelmann states, "When strong habits are effectively punished, their rate and strength will increase for a short period of time and they drop off dramatically." Doesn't this describe what's called an extinction burst?
In our class we are learning about effective behavior management strategies that do not include the use of "punishment." However, if we use the term as defined and explained in the text, don't we use punishment and reinforcement to eliminate inappropriate responses as well as establish reponses that lead to positive reinforcement?
The term punishment is often used incorrectly among teachers and parents. If we use the word as a behavioral technical term we can better understand the role punishment plays in establishing behaviors that can be reinforced.
Punishment lasting a long period of time is not an effective practice and must be discontinued. Engelmann explores these concepts further.
In regards to christinet comment about punishment...we can decrease problem behaviors by using differential reinforcement strategies (DRA, DRI, DRO, DRL) that systematically increase a replacement behavior that achieves the same function as the problem behavior while denying reinforcement to the problem behavior...thereby naturally decreasing the child's need to exhibit the problem behavior...we'll learn more about this later. But, again, in this class the focus will remain on POSITIVE STRATEGIES FOR CHANGING BEHAVIOR...AND AVOID PUNISHMENT RELATED APPROACHES!
In regards to Bradley's comment...it is difficult to make sense out of ONE EVENT...that is why we need to triangulate data (interview others, review records, observe the environment, direct observation of student behavior, etc.).
When you gather data from various sources, including direct observation of behavior for a period of several days, you get a clearer picture about what might be happening. So, this one incident should be recorded as one event and carefully document what happened immediately BEFORE, what the BEHAVIOR was, and what happened immediately AFTER.
Setting event:
student xa was eating in front of student "S" Student "S" did not have food. Student "S" throws work items to ground.
Antecedent:
staff signed, "work done" and turns back to student.
Behavior:
Student "S" hits staff twice.
Consequence:
You did not explain what happened after student "S" hit you...so, I cannot speculate...but minimally, you should describe what happened...for example, was he physically restrained? (got physical contact) verbal and sign reprimand? (got attention from peers/adults) avoid picking up work implements? (avoided/delayed task) get attention? (peers/adults) etc...
Even after you have a good hypothesis statement about what might've happened...it is only a hypothesis that must be tested to determine of it is a true or null hypothesis.
Hope this helps,
Dr. A
Ok, let me see if I understand.
I have a student who refuses to work during our morning rotations. He just gets up and walks out of class. Once he is outside he kicks the door and pounds on the windows as a means to gain teacher and peer attention. If the students respond or the teachers go out and ask him to stop and he does then that is 'positive reinforcement,' right?
The students have now learned to ignore and not provide the reinforcement the student is looking for.
Am I on the right track?
Setting events are situations or circumstances in a person's life that can influence they way they respond to stimulus in their environment.
A scenario of a problem behavior could be that a student rips her textbook when given a direction to start an assignment. The antecedent is that she was asked to start working, but the setting event could be any number of things that may have happened immediately preceding the antecedent to days prior. Possibilities for the setting even could include but are not limited to:
- conflict with parents or siblings before coming to school
- having a substitute bus driver
- misplacing a favorite item
- excessive environmental noise in the classroom (from peers, teachers, lights, traffic, etc)
- climate or weather related issues such as rain or classroom temperature being too hot or cold
- presence of a non-preferred teacher or peer or a classroom visitor
- absence of a familiar peer or teacher
The student above may rip a book to avoid a task only on very hot days but not when it's cool, or when there is a substitute instead of the regular teacher.
The setting event should always be considered when evaluating behavior because it gives information on when a student is likely to respond differently to a constant antecedent.
When I studied Applied Behavior Analysis in my undergrad I essentially looked at positive and negative reinforcement as math equations to keep them straight. I realize though if math is not a strong suite that this could less than helpful for you but it always helps me keep straight what type of reinforcement is happening or that I am trying to use.
So if a = antecedent, b = behavior, r = reinforcement
For instance, negative reinforcement as an equation looks like this:
-a + b = -r*
* always remembering here that (-) means negative= aversive not less or decreasing. You can not have a reinforcement that happens less only more or consistently.
then positive looks like this:
a + b = +r
punishment:
a + (-b)** = p
** only here does (-) mean minus.
finally extinction, looks a little different:
(a + b)0r*** = e
***0r = zero reinforcement
Thus, when I am presented with a situation I start to work through it in my head as I did above and that helps me determine what is happening.
For example, in a 5th grade class there is a student who always starts throwing a tantrum five minutes before lunch. Subsequently, the teacher has started wrapping up her lesson early to let the students line up for lunch. What is happening?
Thus, I see that the teacher has an increasing behavior, so +b and the antecedent that increases the behavior is a negative thing so -a. Then plug these in:
-a + b = -r
This is negative reinforcement.
Similarly, if I see that in a 5th grade class where the teacher praises students who sit quietly through the lesson and all the students are attentive till it is time for lunch.
I then look at the situation and see an increase in behavior, so +b. Then I see that antecedent is a positive thing, so a.
a + b = +r, positive reinforcement
I realize that if you work these out really mathematically they don't work but seeing them worked out like this helps keep everything straight. I am sure there are other formulas that would make sense or may even really mathematically work. If this is confusing for you all please just disregard, but when I started looking at it like this it really helped me.
ok this is the problem with doing this when you are sleep deprived and sick... I totally screwed up positive reinforcement and fell into the trap of applied behavior analysis..thinking that positive reinforcement means good behavior..while explaining how not to fall into the trap...did I mention that I was sick and tired?
So I made my mom dig up my notes in undergrad because I knew that was wrong after I posted it
an appropriate way instead of the drivel I posted before is:
b + r = ^b = positive reinforcement
^b = increased behavior, or draw an arrow up.
Again, my apologies.
Okay,
This discussion is closed...try the next one.
Dr. A
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