Increasing and
decreasing a
behavior
Prof. Lindsay Tolton
Positive Reinforcement
• 1) Positive Reinforcement: A behavior occurs. A stimulus is
presented immediately following the behavior. The probability
of that behavior occurring again in the future increases.
•
Examples:
• Todd finishes his multiplication timed test and afterwards he
gets a piece of gum.
• George sits for 5 minutes appropriately in circle time and earns
blowing bubbles.
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Positive reinforcement
Negative Reinforcement
• 2) Negative Reinforcement: A behavior occurs. A stimulus
is removed immediately following the behavior. The
probability of that behavior occurring again in the
future increases.
• Examples:
• When Todd first started working on his multiplication timed
tests, there were too many problems to complete. After every 5
problems he completed, 1 problem was erased.
• When Susie's teacher tells her it is time for circle time, she
tantrums on the floor. Her teacher removes demands and Susie
does not participate in circle time.
Examples of negative
reinforcement
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www.educateautism.com/behavioural-principles/examples-of-
negative-reinforcement.html
What effects reinforcer
effectiveness?
• We must remember 4 different variables that effect reinforcer
effectiveness. They are: deprivation/satiation, immediacy, size,
and contingency.
1) Deprivation/Satiation: Often
referred to as not enough or too much of a
good thing!
• Deprivation: Not having access to something that is highly desirable. Often this is
used to increase the value of an item/activity to someone.
•
Example:
• I haven't eaten pizza in a long time, because I've been on a diet. Because I
haven't eaten any, I am deprived, therefore, I want pizza!
•
Satiation: This is the opposite of deprivation. Satiation refers to having too much.
If the same reinforcer is used over and over again, it will lose it's reinforcing
value.
•
Example:
• If you ate pizza for lunch today and dinner tonight and tomorrow your co-worker
suggests eating a pizza buffet for lunch, you may shout, "No way!" You are
satiated with pizza.
2. Immediacy
• Immediacy: The reinforcer must be delivered as quickly as
possible following the target behavior that we are looking to
increase on newly targeted skills. The longer the amount of time
that lapses between the behavior we want to see increase and
the time the reinforcer is delivered, the less valuable the
reinforcer will be.
•
• Example:
• If Riley spontaneously raises her hand to answer a question while
sitting in class (a new goal we have targeted) and we don't
respond to this until 10 minutes have passed, we have likely lost
most of the reinforcing value of whatever it is we are delivering
for that target behavior. We are now reinforcing whatever Riley
is doing, 10 minutes later.
Keep in mind
• It is also important to realize that over time we need to thin
out our levels of reinforcement. After all, we can't expect to go
to work and get a pay check after the end of each hour we are
working. So, it is important that we also teach individuals how
to delay receiving their reinforcer through the use of token
economy reinforcement systems. Through using an
individually designed reinforcement system, we are able to
reinforce after so many behaviors, or so much time has
elapsed and gradually increase the number of behaviors, or
time, and eventually fade the system out altogether.
3) Size: This refers to how much of the
reinforcer you get/are giving.
• Example:
• If Mike reads 1 sight word card, and he earns a king size candy
bar, we will satiate him and have to look for new reinforcers.
Maybe a better way to reinforce would be a bite size candy bar
after reading 20 sight word cards or finishing reading class.
4) Contingency:
• Reinforcement delivery must be contingent, meaning,
access to a reinforcer only occurs after the target
behavior has been demonstrated.
Let´s practice
• You want the student to sit at their desk for ten minutes at a
time. Currently the student finds it difficult to stay at her desk
for more than five minutes at a time.
• Would you use positive or negative reinforcement?
• How would you reinforce? Explain.
• You want the student to complete her worksheet. The student
usually only does 10 problems, but this worksheet has 11
problems. You want her to finish.
• Would you use positive or negative reinforcement?
• How would you reinforce? Explain.
• You want the student to wash her hands before lunch. The
student doesn´t like getting his hands wet.
• Would you use positive or negative reinforcement?
• How would you reinforce? Explain.
• You want the student to participate in an activity with a
partner. The student has never done this before and does not
display much interest in interacting with other students.
• Would you use positive or negative reinforcement?
• How would you reinforce? Explain.
Don´t forget the power of the
antedents and/or practice
• Reinforcing will help increase a behavior, but what you do
before the behavior also has a big impact as well.
• Also, don´t forget that the more you practice a behavior, the
easier it is to expect it to occur in the presense of the stimulus.
• Antecedents: many of the tools and strategies we have
already seen are good antecedents, plus maintaining the
classroom environment
Punishment
• Punishment- Punishment has occurred when a response is
followed immediately by a stimulus change that decreases the
future frequency of similar responses (Cooper & Heron, 2007,
Applied Behavior Analysis).
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punishment.html
Some examples
• Reprimands: Yes, this is considered punishment! Remember
the definition of a punisher is something that causes the
target behavior to decrease. So if your client keeps touching
the materials at the table and you say a stern "Hands Down",
which causes them to stop touching materials, then "Hands
Down" was a form of punishment. Other examples include
"No", "Stop that", "Get down", etc.
• Response Blocking: This is when the child goes to do
something, like push a sibling, and you block them from
completing the action. I use blocking all the time, which could
be as simple as stepping in between my client and the child
they are trying to hit. Blocking is a non- intrusive way to stop a
child from successfully engaging in inappropriate behavior.
• Over Correction: This is one of my favorite types of
punishment. That might sound odd that I have a favorite kind
of punishment, but its because whenever I have implemented
an over correction technique it works super fast. Basically,
over correction is when you OVER react to an inappropriate
behavior. For example, if the child throws their cup of milk
from the table during dinner, you would have the child go
through the entire clean-up process several times in a row.
What I really like about over correction is it is very easy to
teach to parents.
Remember
• Positive reinforcement leads to longer, better and more
sustained behavioral responses
• You should always try to reinforce a behavior that excludes the
undesired behavior and/or reinforce the absense of the
undesired behavior
Examples
• For a child that really enjoys a specific class, such as gym or
music classes at school, negative punishment can happen if
they are removed from that class and sent to the principal’s
office because they were acting out/misbehaving.
• If a child does not follow directions or acts inappropriately, he
loses a token for good behavior that can later be cashed in for
a prize.
• Siblings get in a fight over who gets to go first in a game or
who gets to play with a new toy, the parent takes the
game/toy away.
Portfolio:
• Target a behavior for increase:
• Student asks for food (when hungry)
• What should we do at the antecedent level?
• What should be do at the consequence level?
• How should we take data?
• Target a behavior for decrease:
• Student walks away from desk.
• What should we do at the antecedent level?
• What should be do at the consequence level?
• How should we take data?
• What corresponding behavior should we target for increase?
