Aversive Control

Question 1

Conditioned Aversive Stimulus (S^ave)

Answer 1

A stimulus or event that precedes an operant and sets the occasion for avoidance.

Question 2

Unconditional Aversive Stimulus

Answer 2

A stimulus or event that, as a function of species history, an organism escapes.
* Also called a “Primary Aversive Stimulus”

Question 3

Positive Punishment:

Answer 3

Any event or stimulus that, when presented as a consequence of a behaviour, decreases the future probability of that behaviour.

Question 4

Negative Punishment

Answer 4

Any event or stimulus that, when removed as a consequence of a behaviour, decreases the future probability of that behaviour.

Question 5

Negative Reinforcement:

Answer 5

Any event or stimulus that, when removed as a consequence of a behaviour, increases or maintains the future probability of that behaviour.

Question 6

Overcorrection

Positive (+) Punishment

Answer 6

Form of positive punishment in which the individual has to engage in effortful behavior contingent on the problem behavior.

Question 7

Restitution

Positive Punishment

Answer 7

Contingent on the problem behavior, the individual is required to fix the environment disrupted by the problem behavior

Question 8

Positive Practice

Positive Punishment

Answer 8

Contingent on the problem behavior the individual has to engage in correct forms of relevant behavior for a period of time.

Question 9

Guided Compliance

Positive Punishment

Answer 9

A form of positive punishment in which, contingent on problem behavior that occurs following a request, the individual is physically guided to comply with the request.
- Positively Punishes non-compliance.
- Negatively Reinforces compliance.
- Positive Reinforcement of compliance is easily incorporated.

Question 10

Contingent Exercise

Positive (+) Punishment

Answer 10

Contingent on the problem behaviour, the individual engages in some effortful behaviour for a specified period of time.
* The effortful behaviour is unrelated to the problem behaviour.

Question 11

Physical Restraint

Positive (+) Punishment

Answer 11

A form of positive punishment in which, contingent on the problem behaviour, the body part involved in the behaviour is held immobile for a specified period of time.
* Used in conjunction with response blocking.

Question 12

Response Blocking

Positive (+) Punishment

Answer 12

Physically stopping a behavior from being completed.
* Can prevent problems generated by the behavior.
* May prevent the behavior from being reinforced.

Question 13

Time-Out from Positive Reinforcement

Negative (-) Punishment

Answer 13

A form of negative punishment in which loss of access to positive reinforcement is
contingent on a response.
* In particular, time-out needs to prevent access to the reinforcer maintaining the problem behaviour

Time-out should be administered
immediately.
- Physical guidance may be necessary.

There should be no means of escaping the
time-out.
* i.e. Other reinforcers should not be accessible.

Question 14

Response Cost

Negative (-) Punishment

Answer 14

Contingent on a problem behaviour occurring, a specified amount of reinforcer
is removed.

If reinforcer loss is delayed then conditioned punishers should be employed to bridge the delay and provide an immediate consequence.
* E.g. Conditioned Punisher = Speeding Ticket
* E.g. Conditioned Punisher = Verbal statement

Need to consider what reinforcer(s) to
remove and the magnitude of the removal.

Question 15

Aversive Activities vs. Stimulation

Answer 15

Aversive/punishing stimulation is rarely, if ever, used in Behaviour Modification or ABA

Examples:
* lemon juice [see rumination example in textbook]
* spray mist
* ice [bruxism example]
* aromatic ammonia
* auditory stimulation (shouting or loud noise)
* Spanking

Question 16

Escape Learning

Answer 16

When a operant changes the environment from a situation where an unconditional negative reinforcer is present to one where it is absent.
- Escape responses are typically learned faster than avoidance responses.
- Compatibility with reflexive unconditioned responses determines how quickly the response occurs.
- Conditioning escape is easiest when the operant response is similar to the ‘reflexive’ unconditional response elicited by the aversive stimulus.

Question 17

Avoidance Learning

Answer 17

When an operant prevents the occurrence of a aversive stimulus.

Question 18

Discriminated Avoidance:

Answer 18

When the presence of a Save controls the probability of making avoidance response.
* i.e., a warning signal.

Establishing Save is typically much slower than establishing SD or SΔ
* Save also typically becomes a CS eliciting other respondent behaviour that can
interfere with the operant behaviour.

Question 19

Nondiscriminated Avoidance

Answer 19

• Avoidance responding with no Save to produce discrimination.
• Avoidance needs to be negatively reinforced occasionally to be maintained.
• Avoidance is poorly maintained when responses do not reliably reduce the frequency of the aversive event.

Question 20

Operant – Respondent Interactions

Avoidance Learning

Answer 20

Discriminated Avoidance
* S^ave can also function as a CS for respondent behaviour which interrupts the operant response.

Respondent Extinction
* Avoidance behaviour maintained by operant conditioning can hinder respondent extinction.
- E.g. Avoiding phobic stimuli is negatively reinforcing and thus extinguishing the fearful responses (via exposure) is made much more difficult.

Question 21

Learned Helplessness

Answer 21

Seligman and Maier (1967)
* Dogs exposed to predictable (signaled) but inescapable shock do not try to
escape when later allowed to.
* Model for depression and anxiety.

Question 22

How do you treat and prevent learned helplessness

Answer 22

Treatment:
* Forced escape: Create a situation in which failure to escape is not possible.

Prevention:
* Pre-exposure to escape and avoidance contingencies can block the learned helplessness brought on by inescapable aversive events.